Shipwreck Team Gets National Recognition

April 30, 2015 by Southend Borough Council

Shipwreck Team Gets National Recognition

Friday 1st May 2015

Southend Museums staff members have been recognised on the national stage for their intrepid efforts to probe finds from an ancient shipwreck.

The London Shipwreck Project run by Southend Museums Service was a runner up in the prestigious Museums and Heritage Award for Excellence in the category of ‘Project with a Limited Budget’

This innovative community archaeology scheme enlisted local people to help with the sorting and preventive conservation of artefacts from the long-forgotten wreck of the HMS London, which sank on March 7th 1665 when she mysteriously blew up at the Nore near Southend.

The London was first rediscovered in 2005 during works for the London Gateway. It was initially investigated by Wessex Archaeology, and local licensed divers continued to monitor it from then on.

Last year, English Heritage commissioned Cotswold Archaeology and the licensed divers to start carrying out underwater investigations. Southend Museums Service won a grant from the Esmée Fairbairn Collections fund to curate, conserve and display finds from the wreck and to develop a local community project.

This included recruiting and training 17 mostly local volunteers to help with the finds. They were stationed at the end of the Pier where residents and visitors could watch them sorting and undertaking preventive conservation of objects recovered from the London Shipwreck.

Among the volunteers was local photographer, Luke Mair, whose pictures documenting the project are on view at the Beecroft Art Gallery, in the former Southend Central Library building, Victoria Avenue, Southend until Saturday 27th June.

The Council’s Head of Culture, Nick Harris said: “Although we are very disappointed not to have won, I am extremely proud of the team for being recognised for this amazing project. Being shortlisted is an achievement in itself and although we were beaten to top spot, runner up is more than deserved.

“It created great interest at the end of the Pier this summer – and people can continue to feel involved by seeing the pictures on show at the Beecroft Gallery.
“These highlight key moments during the project and show how Southend people worked together to preserve their fascinating heritage.
This exhibition is very fitting way to mark the 350th anniversary of the sinking of this vessel at the Nore near Southend, which was the traditional fleet assembly point in the Thames Estuary.”

The London was built in Chatham for the Cromwellian Navy in 1656, and was one of just three completed second-rate ships of the ten ordered for the first Anglo-Dutch war.

She was part of an English squadron sent to the Netherlands in 1660 to restore Charles II to the English throne.

However, London’s illustrious career as the flagship of the maverick admiral Sir John Lawson was cut short on the 7th of March 1665 when she mysteriously blew up at the Nore.

Image attached show volunteers on Southend Pier working on the artefacts last Summer.