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.

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.