The Mary Rose gets funding for a new museum
From the BBC:
The world’s last surviving 16th Century warship has been awarded a £21m grant.
Henry VIII’s flagship the Mary Rose, housed at Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard, was raised from the bottom of the Solent, in 1982.Fears the national treasure would be sold for firewood if the funding bid failed clouded the 25th anniversary of the ship’s raising last October.
The Heritage Lottery Fund grant will be used to complete its conservation and build a museum around the vessel.
The Guardian also has an article, with a link to a nice slideshow that has images of what the museum will look like.
Updated to add: Check out the official site for the Mary Rose to see more images of the new museum
Lara said,
January 28, 2008 @ 9:54 pm
Okay, would they REALLY have sold it for firewood?
Glad they got the funding!
Lara said,
January 28, 2008 @ 10:16 pm
I’m sure that was just the typical exaggeration, but who knows what would have become of it if the funding hadn’t come through!
I’m looking forward to visiting again once the new museum is complete, since I read that only 6% of the artifacts are currently on display!
Foose said,
February 4, 2008 @ 2:42 am
Speaking of ships, I read that Henry VIII bought the ships “Mary Boleyn” and “Anne Boleyn” from Sir Thomas Boleyn in the early 1520s. Does anyone know what happened to these ships? Were the names perhaps changed when Anne Boleyn fell from power? I was looking at a site listing the ships Henry built, there’s one called the “Bark of Bullen” in 1522, which is suggestive; it reappears as being added by Edward in 1550 and then again by Elizabeth. (Not under Mary, though!)