Personal Stories To Be Highlighted In The New Mary Rose Museum

Personal stories are to be highlighted at the new Mary Rose Museum, due to open in Autumn 2012, as the collection is reunited with the ship for the first time since her raising in 1982.

Speaking in a video update on the progress of the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard development, Head of Interpretation at the Mary Rose Trust, Christopher Dobbs, revealed a mock-up display cabinet for the carpenter, complete with personal possessions.

As previously described by Nick Butterley in an earlier update (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuubZnpnQMk) the first area, on the ground floor, will be one of six galleries showing items by type and themes. The Context Gallery, on the two upper levels, will then position exhibits opposite the areas of the ship where they would originally have been found.

Christopher describes how there are many stories locked up in the collection, which the new museum will be able to tell more effectively, and the mock-up display is a vitally important part of the preparation process.

The planning initially starts with the objects in the collection and then the stories emerge…

They are looking at how the stories then relate to other parts of the collection before designing the displays and looking at the best form of lighting to make the objects shine to their best.

“I’m very lucky that the carpenter’s cabin was actually the section of the ship that I was in charge of excavating,” said Christopher.

“But now I think the challenge and exciting thing is making all those stories, all these objects available to the public in a new and exciting way.”

You can watch the full interview here:

Alan Titchmarsh explores the Mary Rose Museum and encourages fundraising for the new museum

Alan Titchmarsh talks about some of his favourite artefacts from the Mary Rose Museum and looks to the future of the new museum opening in 2012.

To help fundraise for the new museum visit www.maryrose500.org

The video footage was kindly produced by Solent University.

Staff reflect on their highlights of 2010

Looking towards the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard office at the start of December

As 2010 starts to draw to a close, the staff at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard office have been reflecting on their highlights of the year, both personally and professionally and we wanted to share them with you all!


As an ex- Royal Marine from before the days of GPS, I am a bit of a ‘maps anorak’ and so my personal highlight on site in the past year was when the Mary Rose Trust staged a temporary exhibition - Mapping Portsmouth's Tudor Past, which brought together, for the first time, several important maps from The British Library, UK Hydrographic Office and the Admiralty Library.

All but one of these maps were hand-drawn and works of art in their own right. They provided a unique and fascinating insight into Tudor Portsmouth and the view of their world 500 years ago. It was quite remarkable to be able to compare them to the Portsmouth of today, to note how different parts of the City have developed in different ways, but others not at all where the same buildings and activities are still there. I was also amazed how maps produced free-hand, so long ago and without the benefits of modern technology, could be so accurate and consistent.

To be able to show our visitors artefacts of this quality and rarity is always a real boost for the Historic Dockyard and demonstrates how effective careful partnership working behind the scenes can be. We hope to continue a series of similar, high quality and rare exhibitions in the future.
Robert Bruce - Managing Director

My highlight of the year has, of course, been starting my new position here at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. I have loved settling into the PHDL team and, in particular the Advanced Sales Office. I've had lots of little highlights over the last eight months but if I were to pick one in particular, it would have to be successfully welcoming over ninety coach groups to the Victorian Festival of Christmas last month. With planning and team work everything went smoothly.
Emma Abrook - Sales Team Leader

Navy Days 2010 was a personal highlight for me as I really got to stick my teeth into the event and help to organise the re-enactments and entertainment that took place on the Heritage part of the site as well as the large event footprint as a whole. It gave me goose bumps when I saw the visitors enter and it was great to have a walk around and see all what was going on and how it all came together. I got to work with such a wide variety of people from all sources and I learnt so much from it. The personal highlight was sitting on South Railway Jetty at the end of the day with a whole mismatch of people and colleagues and having a pint in the glorious sunshine! :o)
Amy Cosgrave - Events Assistant

A memorable event for me happened in November when Chris Winder dressed as The Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz climbed the mast of HMS Warrior in aid of charity; despite being terminally ill himself. The climb was arduous and took a long time; but the sheer joy on Chris’s face at reaching the top of the mast was very moving.
Elaine Arkell - PA to Managing Director

On a personal 'General Marketing' note it is seeing my outdoor campaign plan come to life with HMS Victory on buses (we are still on them 4 months on!), on large 48 sheets at the side of roads and throughout the 'Museum tunnel' that links the V&A Museum and the National History Museum in London. It was also great to see our 'Portsmouth' destination campaign on trains and on train station platforms throughout London.

But on a broader Portsmouth Historic Dockyard note, it has to be stood in the cold with colleagues at our Festival of Christmas weekend in November, with real snow starting to fall for the first time in the events' history. It was a great weekend and the snow made it extra special, my favourite Festival of Christmas so far. Bring on next year's!
Happy 2011 to all.
Holly Langridge - Marketing Executive

My highlight of the year has to be our one-off events with the Royal British Legion which have resulted in widespread press coverage across print, radio and TV, but have also been very moving and worthwhile. There was the Hampshire Poppy Launch in Victory Arena focusing on the Afghan generation but also the March for Honour, with a Navy team marching from HMS Victory to Wootton Bassett to collect a book of remembrance with the other services and then delivering to the Royal Albert Hall on Armistice Day. I was extremely proud to be a part of a very worthwhile cause.

Oh and I can’t forget Navy Days, hard work but immense fun and good to get to work with not only my Navy press colleagues but the outside broadcast team at BFBS Radio!
Melissa Gerbaldi - Press Officer

My highlight has been seeing the success of Navy Days and Festival of Christmas. The marketing plans for both events are quite extensive; involving a lot of hard work so to see the site so busy with lots of people here enjoying themselves was great. (And it is always good to meet and exceed targets!)
Kelly Haswell - Marketing Executive

My highlight of 2010 was the introduction of our exclusive Loyalty Club members events.

In April this year, we introduced our first Loyalty Club event, which was a huge success with great feedback received from our members.

The event took place on board HMS Warrior 1860 where Roger Paine, author of Call the Hands: A Collection of Naval Yarns gave a fascinating and amusing account of life in the Navy and Rum tots were enjoyed by all! The afternoon came to an end with an exclusive tour of the ship and refreshments.

The success of this event was repeated at the Mary Rose Museum in September with a talk by Chief Executive of the Mary Rose Trust, focusing on their Tudor Maps exhibition. Guests were fascinated by the talk and were treated to a tour of the museum and again the feedback was so positive.

It was excellent to be able to offer exclusive opportunities for our Loyalty Club members, to repay their commitment to the site and to get the know them. It also meant that members could meet the people behind the scenes and for them to meet other members too.The next one is already being planned for early 2011!
Zoe Gill - Public Relations Executive

My first highlight of 2010 is returning to work for PHD!

My second highlight was at 5:30pm on Monday 29th November after the A Victorian Festival of Christmas de-rig was complete. The site was so spick and span you wouldn't have known that there had been 25,000 people in over 3 days playing in the snow, starting their Christmas shopping, being entertained by all sorts of Victorian characters and visiting all of our wonderful attractions. It was such a huge feeling of achievement and relief for me to know that all that work happened safely and successfully. So on Tuesday 30th November I had a celebratory duvet day!
Terri Hall - Events Executive

My highlight of 2010 from a personal point of view had to be the introduction of a new online ticketing system. Portsmouth Historic Dockyard has always sold tickets online, but our customers had to exchange them in our Visitor Centre for one of our standard tickets, meaning there was no real advantage to buying online. Now you can buy tickets from our website, print them at home and get them scanned at each of our attractions, meaning you jump the queues in our Visitor Centre and can get straight on with your visit.
Phil George - IT Controller

A highlight in the account’s team’s year, was when we managed to stump the Auditors by receiving no queries or comments relating to our year end accounts!! Something I have been striving 5 years for!

My own personal highlight was being outside at the Festival of Christmas when it actually snowed!! It certainly brought a touch of magic to the event when all the children around me were gasping with delight.
Chantelle Millington - Finance Manager

It's been a really full year with lots going on and really no one day is the same. My personal highlight though is the way that we have reached out to the local community and our partners in the region to ensure that we play a significant role in 1) the cultural everyday life of our visitors 2) a wider economic role. We've run Dockyard on your Doorstep and the current library card offer to make it even easier for local residents to visit. We've strengthened really good partnerships with the City Council/County Council and other attractions/businesses in ensuring that Portsmouth is a must-see destination. And the team have worked tirelessly in supporting other initiatives through additional project work; secondments and trusteeships to share the vast knowledge and expertise we've built over the years in tourism; customer service; marketing and PR and to challenge them to achieve even more!
Jacquie Shaw - Head of Communications


Well they were our highlights, but what were yours....? We look forward to hearing from you and sharing even more from behind the scenes of Portsmouth Historic Dockyard in 2011!

Nick Butterley - Exhibition Co-Ordinator at the Mary Rose Trust talks about the New Museum

Melissa Gerbaldi - Press Officer at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard chats to Nick Butterley at the Mary Rose Trust...


Now that the building of the new Mary Rose Museum has started, I was intrigued to find out what is going on behind the scenes of the current museum and the vast collection that is being prepared to be displayed for the very first time.

With that in mind I wandered over the Mary Rose Trust offices and looked around where the conservationists, curators and mountmakers live… I then stumbled across a fantastic looking mock-up display with artefacts from the Barber Surgeon’s collection. Seemed too much of an interesting story to miss so I chatted to Nick Butterley the new Exhibition Co-Ordinator to learn more – please watch what he had to say below!



The team at the Mary Rose Trust are keen to keep everyone up-to-date with all the behind scenes work in preparation for the new museum opening in 2012, so please keep following our blog for further stories, images and videos!

Work begins on new Mary Rose Museum

Hello there,

This is my first blog for Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, I'm Melissa Gerbaldi, the Press Officer for the site, and I'm looking forward to sharing some of our news with you from behind the scenes...!

On Monday I got kitted out in safety gear and man boots (very attractive!) to go onto the construction site of the new Mary Rose Museum. It was part of a media call to mark the first day of construction on the 28th anniversary of the raising of the Mary Rose, to officially sign the £16.3 million contract with Portsmouth based Warings to build the museum, and to highlight that there is still £4million to raise to ensure our national treasure is preserved for future generations. (If you are interested in helping then www.maryrose500.org is the website for you!)

Joining me in the rubble were reporters from BBC South Today, ITV Meridian, The News, Reuters, Wave 105 and a loyal supporter of the fundraising appeal and freelance journalist - Anne-Marie Causer.

We all watched as King Henry VIII (or more commonly known as Andy Owen, Warings Senior Project Manager!) hopped into the digger to pose for photos alongside John Lippiett, Chief Executive of the Mary Rose Trust, and Philippe Jouey, Managing Director of Warings.

Not to be outdone by the TV cameras, myself and Alastair Miles (Mary Rose Trust) grabbed our own little video camera and went into journalism mode to interview John Lippiett ourselves and here is the result!

It was perfect weather for such a celebratory announcement, though I was relieved to swap my safety glasses for sunglasses and huge boots for heels as I headed back down the Historic Dockyard and back to my desk to share the great news and photos with everyone else!

The full press release can be read on our website here: http://www.historicdockyard.co.uk/news/news300.php

Speak again soon!

Melissa

Possibly the oldest dog to attend Crufts, sets tongues wagging thanks to the Mary Rose Museum

Simon Clabby, Mary Rose 500 Appeal

Some of you may have seen in the media that earlier in March the Mary Rose 500 Appeal went on tour to Birmingham, taking a member of the ships crew with us. This crew member is special for two reasons. Firstly, she (yes, she, the only definite female on the ship at the time of sinking) was the youngest member of the crew, and secondly, she was a dog!

According to the wear on her teeth she was about 18 months to two years old when the Mary Rose sank on July 19th 1545, and her remains were found in and around the carpenter’s cabin, towards the stern (back end) of the ship. Despite what you may have heard in some of the papers, she wasn’t actually trapped in the door. While some parts of her were found inside the cabin, the door was slightly ajar when discovered, so the movements of the sea, not to mention marine scavengers, would have moved them around, some falling through the door.

While it’s possible that she may have been some sort of mascot, the Mary Rose dog was onboard for one simple reason; rats. Rats in Tudor times were as much, if not more of a problem in dockyards and onboard ships than they are today, and although they were yet to be linked with diseases, they still caused enough damage to food supplies to be considered a pest that needed removing. In later years cats were used for this job, but the Mary Rose was in service during a period when cats were considered unlucky (in fact, the Pope had instructed the Spanish Inquisition to destroy all cats, and at the coronation of Elizabeth I a cat was burnt as a symbolic gesture or driving out evil from the land!) so dogs were used as ratters instead. She seems to have been good at her job, as rat remains from the Mary Rose consist of four bones from the pelvis/tail area!

The sumptuary laws which determined what materials and foods people of different social statuses were allowed forbade the poor from owning purebred animals, so she definitely would have been a mongrel. However, during our time at Crufts, we did get a lot of people, including two vets from the Kennel Club, suggesting she was possible some form of Terrier. Even so, she’s unlikely to have belonged to any modern breed, despite some of the insistences of one or two breeders groups! She shows signs of exostoses, abnormal bone growth on one of the ribs and her left front paw, which can be hereditary. Luckily for her, they’re not that pronounced, but may have caused her some minor discomfort. She also appears to be missing teeth, as there are two tooth sockets absent.

Crufts itself was an incredible experience. I have no idea how many dogs we saw over the four days of the event, but there were all sorts, from Chihuahuas to Great Danes, Pitbulls to Poodles, and they all appeared to be enjoying themselves. We had pride of place on the Kennel Club’s stand, right in front of the main entrance from Birmingham International railway station, and the levels of interest from both the public and the other exhibitors were incredible. We met hundreds of people who’d heard about us in the papers, on the radio and via Twitter (including our feed, at http://twitter.com/maryrose500, which I was updating as often as time and duty permitted!), and they all had opinions, suggestions and enthusiasm for both the dog and the Appeal. We got to meet Prince Michael of Kent (lovely man!), I got to go on Radio Crufts FM, and we all had our photos taken by the press and public. Sadly we never made it onto More4, who were broadcasting the event, and we didn’t win any rosettes, but at least we could say that our little mongrel, who spent her short life chasing rats around the hold of Henry VIII’s favourite warship, was the oldest (467, or 1881 in dog years!), most well behaved dog at the show. She was certainly the easiest to photograph! (If you visit our Crufts gallery at http://www.flickr.com/photos/maryrose500 , you can see some of our photos) Overall, all of us who attended had a great time, and even though it was exhausting, we thoroughly enjoyed it!

We were at Crufts for two reasons. Firstly, it was to show off the dog (which, if you missed it there, will be on display at the Mary Rose Museum from March 26th), and secondly to raise awareness about the Mary Rose 500 Appeal, which is trying to raise money to create a new home for the Mary Rose, her artefacts and, of course, the dog! If you want to join the new crew of the Mary Rose visit http://www.maryrose500.org for more information on how you can help, or become a fan on facebook (http://www.facebook.com/MaryRose500) for updates and events.