Napoleonic Newsdesk

New Gallery Design Revealed
at The Museum of Naval Firepower

by Paul Chamberlain

This museum in Gosport has announced the proposals for the new gallery Old Bills Locker that is due to open to the public in July 2005 as part of the SeaBritain2005 celebrations.

The new Gallery will be located in the former Education Centre at the museum on the nineteenth camber dock with views across to Nelson’s flagship HMS Victory.

The key element in the gallery will be a three quarter view full-scale model of a transport hoy, a reproduction of the Foreman’s office and the quay-side along which the boat will be moored.

Old Bill’s Locker will detail the buildings of Royal Clarence Yard, food, its production and keeping the navy fed and free from disease. This story will focus on the Yard’s architecture with a specially commissioned film taking the visitor around the Brewery, Cooperage, Granary, Bakery and Slaughterhouse. Here the visitor will see the huge ovens and the area where steam powered bread-making machinery were used.

The gallery will also highlight how food was prepared and stored from the early eight-eenth century and the health issues that were faced by the sailors such as scurvy, malnutri-tion and food parasites.

Planned interactive elements include a pumping device which will let children see how water was drawn by horse-power, a weevil touch discovery box and a film of fruit decaying and rotting over time.

The new gallery will be funded in collaboration with Berkeley Homes. This funding also allows for an unused listed building on the museum site to be refurbished and used as an Education Centre and the area between the new Gallery and the existing museum to be landscaped allowing access to a Victorian Explosives Vault.

The Museum of Naval Firepower is planning many other events to mark the 200 Anniversary celebration of Trafalgar including a community art project “Faces of the Sea”, a model warship weekend, a Royal Navy Treasures exhibition and a Trafalgar Night Firework Spectacular with Cannon firing. For further information contact 023 9250 5600 or visit www.explosion.org.uk.

Napoleonic News Desk

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