20 NAVY NEWS, OCTOBER 2010 New vista at Chatham
● The Upper Mast House at the Historic Dockyard Chatham, a sombre image captured by afi cionado Robert Radford
● (Below) Part of the Maritime Treasures Gallery in the newly-opened No.1 Smithery
A VISIONARY approach to British maritime history has taken root at Chatham – and as it does so a whole new vista is opening up.
The site of the former naval
dockyard on the Medway is thriving as managers seek to combine past, present and future across the fields of business and leisure. Encapsulating the whole concept is the newly-opened No.1 Smithery, a joint enterprise between the Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust (CHDT), the National Maritime Museum and the Imperial War Museum. The former metal workshop,
dating back to 1808, had been the fiery heart of the dockyard in its Victorian heydays, when technology saw wood, canvas and rope succumb to iron and coal. But the building itself eventually became outdated, and by the end of the last century was in a poor state of repair, with plants growing under broken roofs and signs of foundations settling under later extensions.
Around £3m was needed to simply make the English Heritage- listed building safe – but a much more ambitious plan was enacted. According to CHDT Chief Executive Bill Ferris,
it “needed to be used as a museum but
it couldn’t just be another story of the dockyard,” and it had to appeal to a wider group than those who already visited. Talking, some years ago, to Roy
Clare, the then Chief Executive of the National Maritime Museum, Bill was told the NMM had its own problem – 3,000-4,000 models to store. It struck the men that they each had a solution for the other’s dilemma, and with the Imperial War Museum also on board, the seeds sown.
for No.1 Smithery were The result is a £13m building
which has been renovated, within whose brick walls a series of modern glass and metal rooms and display cases have been created, giving historic models a state-of-the-art setting in a historic backdrop. The same principle lay behind
the transformation of the Joiners Shop, which opened as a business centre at the beginning of last year.
Modern high-spec glass offices
have been built inside the solid brick walls, which are let on a
two-week licence, meaning small businesses do not have to risk and commit large sums of money up front. The facility is designed for entrepreneurs starting up creative ventures, sculptors,
photographers. And the sympathetic nature of the transformation in the Joiners Shop is demonstrated by the discovery, during the installation of cables, of an old drive shaft and pit in one corner.
The reminder of past technology
is now a feature of the building, with a glass floor over the pit and restored brickwork lit to best effect.
The Joiners Shop was something
of a dry run for No.1 Smithery, where floors had to be built up, damp walls taken into account and features such as air conduits built into the masterplan. The original features, painted green,
pale buildings-within-buildings
and contemporary are,
though, merely the backdrop to the collection of models and to other exhibitions, both permanent and temporary. One looks at the history of
the armed merchant cruiser Jervis Bay, relating the heroic sacrifice of the lightly-armed Chatham-
such as web design, art restorers and
manned vessel as she took on German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer to allow many ships in the UK-bound convoy she was escorting to disperse and escape. Jervis Bay herself was doomed from the start; the German warship battered her until she sank, taking all but 65 of her crew with her, including her
captain, Edward
Fegen, who was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for valour in the engagement on November 5 1940.
The model collection is eclectic,
ranging from warships old and new (Balchen’s Victory of 1737 and the odd pre-Dreadnought amongst them) to civilian vessels (the yacht America, which gave its name to the sailing trophy) to associated areas such as Smeaton’s Tower lighthouse. Another
section of No.1
Smithery studies Chatham in the Georgian era, and displays – for the first time – a large- scale contemporary model of the yard, previously kept in protective storage and so accurate it can be used as a reference point for historians. Some models
are kept in a
‘storage on display’ area, allowing such gems as
the Aki, a 1:50
scale 10ft model of the 21,000-ton 1907 Japanese battleship, to be seen by the public.
The old pipe bending floor has also been resurrected to allow a glimpse of the building’s former use,
and scattered between
the modern galleries are pits, equipment, artefacts and ash piles from the days of the forges. Beyond Museum Square the
dockyard offers plenty of other attractions. World War 2 destroyer HMS
Cavalier, Cold War-era submarine HMS Ocelot and Victorian slave- chasing sloop HMS Gannet form the yard’s historic ships collection, while the Royal Dockyard Museum reflects on 400 years of Naval history across the site. The Victorian Ropery puts a traditional maritime
industry
under the spotlight, while the Wooden Walls of England takes the dockyard workers of 1758 – the year before Nelson’s Victory was
laid down – as its subject matter. Beyond the displays of Naval interest are the RNLI’s collection of historic lifeboats and the ‘Big Space’ of 3 Slip, which houses the huge machines of the Royal Engineers Museum (including a tank and a D-Day locomotive). Another
illustration of the
philosophy of Bill Ferris is the Railway Workshop picnic and play area.
“We needed money to renovate
the building, which was the armour plate workshop,” said Mr Ferris. “So now, while you watch
volunteers working on the renovation of a railway engine – and you can ask them questions about what they are doing – you can sit in the dry and eat your
● No1 Smithery before restoration
picnic at the tables while the kids play safely in the play area. “So conservation was possible as the building is being used and answering a need.” Last year, before the opening of the new collections, the dockyard welcomed 170,000 visitors, including 30,000 on the first national Armed Forces Day event. “The intention is to increase
that figure by 30 per cent by next year, now that No.1 Smithery is open,” said Mr Ferris. “But beyond that we have 112
businesses operating on the site, and 400 people who live here, either
in new-build houses or
converted buildings. “The Historic Dockyard is a real living, working community.”
For full details of location, opening times (the site is open to visitors until December 12, and re-opens on February 12 2011), special events and ticket prices, see the Chatham yard’s website
www.thedockyard.co.uk
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