Decoding England’s Hidden Heritage: How James D. Wenn & James Syrett Are Reviving 2000 Years Of Lost Cultural Meaning Through BYRGA GENIHT
James D. Wenn and James Syrett are the entrepreneurial duo behind BYRGA GENIHT, a groundbreaking heritage interpretation venture that’s unlocking the coded meanings hidden within England’s architectural treasures. Wenn, who studied early Medieval history and country houses before pursuing humanitarian work, partnered with Syrett, a former agriculture lecturer with a science background, to transform their remarkable cultural discoveries into a thriving consultancy. Together, they’ve cracked the symbolic language embedded in stately homes, palaces, churches, and cathedrals – knowledge that had been lost for over a century.
What began as a chance consultation on a mysterious underground monument has evolved into a mission to reconnect England with its forgotten 2000-year cultural heritage. Their unique expertise spans from interpreting the coronation ceremonies of English kings to decoding the architectural mysteries of Washington D.C., making them the sole practitioners in this specialized field.
In an exclusive interview with Entrepreneur Loop, Wenn and Syrett share their extraordinary journey from academic researchers to cultural entrepreneurs, revealing how they’ve built a business around bringing ancient wisdom back into public consciousness through consultancy services, art exhibitions, and public lectures.
- Please provide a brief introduction of yourself and your professional background.
James W studied the early Medieval period as an undergraduate, then country houses to MA level, before embarking on a humanitarian career. James S studied science before lecturing in agriculture. After losing our jobs to illness, we decided to go full-time into business on the discoveries we have made. - Please tell us a bit more about your startup – what does it offer, what problem does it solve, and who is your target audience?
Our primary clients are country houses, palaces, churches, and cathedrals. We can explain the coded meaning in the architecture that nobody has been able to do for over 100 years. Our research reconnects us to our forgotten culture and heritage, and as such, we also give lectures and are due to host our debut art show in August, with free admission to the public. - What inspired you to start your own business? What was the “aha” moment?
The journey of discovering the culture of England has been littered with eureka moments — playing with 2D and 3D shapes, visits to some amazing and important spaces, and digging into centuries-old books. What gave us the push to set it up as a business was being made redundant due to illness and disability — we knew what we had discovered was the bomb, and we took the opportunity. Without a university to host us, going self-employed was the only option. - What were some of the biggest initial challenges you faced in getting your business off the ground? How did you overcome them?
By far the biggest problem we face is simply not being believed — our claims are so outlandish that people just assume we must be delusional. However, if we can get a couple of hours to walk someone through our evidence, we can convince them 99% of the time. Therefore, the solution has been networking, networking, and networking again. When people are ignoring your letters and emails, a personal recommendation is a far more effective way to get an audience with someone important. We have also submitted our research to academic peer review, as is proper, but that route is too slow to make serious progress. - How did you identify a gap in the market or need that your business fulfills?
It would be wrong to say that we went looking for this stuff in the conventional way — it just landed in our lap. We were called in to interpret a strange, underground monument at an estate close to us, and the research snowballed from there. What we did have to do was seek out just how big the market available to us was, and it’s huge! We can explain everything from the coronation of the king of England to the strange architecture of Washington D.C. This has meant lots of snooping around posing as tourists, and digging into the literature on country houses, past and present. - What has been your approach to funding your startup? Did you use your own savings, seek investors, crowdfund?
James S put up £1500 of his savings as float in the first year, but everything since then, we’ve had to earn from sales. Luckily, consultancy has very good margins. We didn’t have the nerve to ask anyone else to pitch in with money on a project like this — we were sure that nobody would believe us. At the moment, we’re trying to find sponsorship for our debut art show, and our fears seem to be justified. - How did you go about building your team and attracting talent in the early days?
It’s all about networking. Neither of us is a natural at talking business, but when your idea is solid enough, it becomes easier. While we have struggled with people in finance, politics, commerce, etc., there was one group that instantly got why our findings are so important — artists. They have been our best allies in terms of growing a movement. - What have been some of the toughest decisions you’ve had to make as a founder? Any stand out as pivotal?
Apart from going self-employed with a minimum of training? Probably the hardest decision was going to ground while we secured all our intellectual property. In business terms, it’s like trying to hold your breath for as long as possible, when all you want to do is breathe, but it has proven to be valuable — someone has already threatened our intellectual property, and we successfully fought them over it. If someone stole our IP, we wouldn’t have a business any more. - What have been your key strategies for growth and gaining traction/users?
There is no playbook for a business like ours. As such, we spread our bets by putting lots of irons in the fire — possibly too many. We have contacted country houses to sell them advice, we have approached luxury brands to see if they want a piece of the action, and we have the public outreach as another revenue stream. Most business advisors would tell you to pick one market and focus on it, and while that is probably good advice in most cases, if we had done that and backed the wrong horse, we’d be sunk. - How do you stand out from the competition in your space? What sets your product/service apart?
We are lucky to have no competition. The discoveries are ours alone — again, that’s why securing IP made all the difference. There are businesses and individuals out there who advise country estates on things like land management and branding, but absolutely nobody has the specific insight into English culture that we do. - What have been some mistakes or failures you’ve made along the way as an entrepreneur? How did you recover and learn from them?
We both have very outdated views on how the world of work functions — our schools were very traditional, and taught us that paper letters were king in terms of attracting attention. Website design wasn’t taught at all, and while I know a good site when I see one, building one with the right flow was tricky. School was only 20 years ago, but the game has changed utterly since then, and we are slow to adapt. As such, we have taken advice from professionals on how best to market ourselves, and their advice has helped us immensely. - What do you know now that you wish you knew when you were first starting out?
Develop a tolerance for being ignored. It’s disheartening enough to be rejected, but simply hearing nothing back is far more corrosive to your self-esteem. You don’t know what you are doing wrong — did you send it to the wrong place? Do they think you’re crazy? Should you have written it a different way? Are they just busy? We’re not saying people should give up, but don’t let it get to you, and get a system in place to follow up contacts so you don’t fill up all your brain space with incomplete conversations. - What are the most important skills someone needs to be a successful founder, in your opinion?
Definitely an agreeable attitude — you need to be someone that people will enjoy working with, or buying from. Being able to have a pleasant conversation with someone, from any walk of life, regardless of how you’re actually feeling in the moment, opens doors more reliably than anything we know. Human connection is something we value very highly in our work, and we think as more people are turning to machines to do their design and marketing, work done by real people with real soul are going to become more attractive to customers. - What does a typical day or week look like for you? How do you manage work-life balance?
A typical day doesn’t often exist. We spend a lot of time writing to potential clients, but then we’ll take a few days out to do some fieldwork, looking round a manor house or a cathedral, blagging our way into the bits that most people don’t get to see. Other days, we are liaising with artists to discuss new works, or going for lunch with respected people who can add weight to our credibility. We also create all of our visual media, and James S spends evenings animating in 3D or designing lecture aids. We prefer to work weekends and take days off mid-week when possible. It’s one of the perks of being self-employed — being able to avoid the queues that most people have to deal with. We struggle to make time to relax at the moment, but being able to do so at quiet times gives better value for money. - What do you find most rewarding and most challenging about being an entrepreneur?
The material is rewarding in its own right — bringing back a whole national culture is daunting, but an obviously worthwhile thing to do. We also take satisfaction in doing a job well, and being able to put on a good show for the public or decorating a report for a client to show that we care is a freedom that not every job allows. The challenge is keeping going when the momentum drops. There are periods when nobody is answering the phone to you, even when you’re trying to buy from them, and that’s the moment when you have to take a break, if you possibly can. You also need to have a list of tasks to do, so when you lose direction, you can at least pick out something productive to do in the meantime. - What are some future goals or plans you have for your business in the next few years?
This research demands a TV documentary, so we are pushing for that. We measure our success in terms of how many people we reach, and how much people want to get behind the movement. We also hope that people will want to see the designs and motifs that we study be deployed in the world again, and we would love to partner with more architects, designers and fashion brands to make that happen. - What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs who want to start their own company?
Build a company with soul. Don’t make it about how you can streamline everything by automating tasks, or how to provide the bare minimum. Make something that values customers, and where the customers value you. Be a welcome presence and foster great communication with people. More than ever, people need to feel connections and to have dignity.
James Wenn and James Syrett’s journey with BYRGA GENIHT demonstrates that sometimes the most impactful businesses emerge from unexpected discoveries rather than market research. Their dedication to preserving and reviving England’s cultural heritage while building meaningful human connections offers a refreshing perspective in our increasingly automated world. As they work toward their goal of reaching broader audiences through documentaries and partnerships with architects and designers, they’re proving that businesses built with soul and genuine passion can create lasting cultural impact while achieving commercial success.
