A key part of the community engagement work of the Mary Rose Museum is to reach out beyond our boundaries, in order to engage with communities that are largely unfamiliar with us, as well as to refresh awareness of our offering to those visitors to whom we have long appealed.
Summer 2024 saw the Mary Rose Museum represented at eight separate events, as far afield as the Chalke History Festival in Wiltshire, to the Portsea Carnival, virtually at the museum’s front door. A diverse set of audiences were addressed, with the Mary Rose Museum also present at Portsmouth Pride, the Fratton Family Festival, Portsmouth Comic Con, the New Forest Show, Guildhall Games Fest and last, but definitely not least (certainly in terms of its scale!), the hugely popular Victorious Festival on Southsea Common.
The Mary Rose on Tour at Southsea Castle
The Mary Rose presence varies according to the event. If it is family-orientated then games and activities are the primary focus, appealing especially to our younger visitors. These include archery with, rest assured, the arrows being of the rubber sucker type rather than the more conventional pointed metal heads, along with games such as ‘Nine Men’s Morris’ that would have been very familiar to the crew of Mary Rose (although our version involves counters the size of saucepan lids rather than being the size of small coins, which they would have been used to). For events having more of a focus on maturer audiences, there is the opportunity for visitors to engage directly with museum experts on the stand. They can answer queries and share narratives on all aspects of the Mary Rose story, whether concerned with the extensive career of the vessel itself and its tragic and dramatic demise at The Battle of the Solent, or the captivating tale of its discovery in 1971, through to its famous recovery in 1982.
One fascinating opportunity at all events is the chance to get up close and personal with the Mary Rose itself. Typically, our event displays will include actual artefacts excavated from the ship, so all approximately 500 years old (if not much older!). Often, these will number amongst them a piece of the decking, that would be from an oak that already would have been at least a century old when it was felled. Other items usually consist of an example of the ship’s ammunition, a cannonball – or, more correctly, ‘shot’ – made of Kentish Ragstone, along with a small section of the ship’s rigging, made from hemp, and still smelling strongly of the pitch into which it was coated to help make it waterproof.
Our presence at events also helps supporters to engage more deeply with the museum. Visitors can opt to sign up to receive a newsletter, so keeping informed of our activities at the museum and elsewhere, or enquire about becoming a museum volunteer, or joining the membership of the museum itself by becoming a Patron – or even being a part of our exclusive Flag Officer club.
So, whether wishing to emulate a Tudor archer by hitting a few bullseyes, or engaging with the museum at a deeper level, or simply just wishing to say ‘hello’, please feel very welcome to engage with us at any summer event you may catch us at during 2025.
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