Portsmouth Historic Dockyard

Portsmouth Historic Dockyard - What WE Say...

I thought I had some pretty good knowledge for starting our visit to the Historic Dockyard; “Portsmouth is the home to the Mary Rose, the Henry VIII ship that was found and raised in the 80’s.”. A quick research online and I could practically feel Mr Google shaking his head sadly at me. Oh, yes, the Mary Rose is there. As is HMS Victory (on which Nelson died) and HMS Warrior (first iron warship), and the Mary Rose museum… and a heap of other stuff I was too baffled by to take in. Okay, so plenty for us to look at, but I have to admit to a little trepidation at taking three boisterous boys to a dry-sounding, information-overloaded day of museum tours (come on, admit you were thinking it).

But from the minute we arrived they were transfixed – I really shouldn’t have worried. We decided (as is our wont) to ignore the perfectly good advice in the guide and not work our way through history. No; HMS Warrior was right in front of us as we left the reception area, so to there of course we went first.

This Victorian ship just had the boys fascinated – from the living quarters to the cannons to the muskets and pistols stored overhead (easy access during battle, see) they looked, touched, listened and absorbed. And ran repeatedly over the bridge-thing on the deck. Which I failed to learn the correct term for. Clearly.

From the Warrior we strolled past the oh-so-handily placed Costa coffee, were tempted by the smell and the sunshine and had a quick latte-rich respite on the quay before dragging the slightly-unwilling boys into the Mary Rose museum (“but we don’t LIKE museums, why can’t we go on another boat?”).

A quick summary of what the Mary Rose was and how she was found and the children scattered to the four corners. I was nervously bouncing between them until I realised that they had scattered not to destroy and annoy, but because each and every one of them had spotted something to examine a little closer. Toby (6) headed straight to the weapons section – sigh – whilst Joe (8) was fascinated by the ships surgeon who was giving a talk, and then looking at all the implements of his found on the ship. Cameron was more interested in the day-to-day items discovered on board, and he and I spent a long time marvelling over leather bound books, miniature dice and shoe buckles. Seeing so many personal items on display, and recognising so many of them for themselves really did bring the period to life for them, and we stayed in the museum for almost two hours – the boys dressed up in costume, tried on armour, hauled up a mainsail, attempted to draw a longbow, and learned a staggering amount about life in Tudor times.

After lunch we headed to the other end of the dockyard to see the Mary Rose herself – here we suspected boys really would pay attention for 2 minutes, be bored and wander off. But no, they took their personal audio tour, entered the dark and humid gallery, and we managed to listen to our own version in peace as they stared through the gloom and absorbed the incredible story of the ship. When we left they were full of questions and comments, and had clearly been enthralled by her story – and the sight of the actual real ship was “so cool”. High praise.

Next stop was the HMS Victory and again we gave them a potted history as we began the tour, which we embellished as we walked around. By now the dockyard was busy and the Victory is a dark and cramped ship – moving within the confines of the roped walkways was often awkward (there are no pushchairs allowed on either of the two ships), and Ella (2) was really starting to object to the constant holding and restriction. Cam (10) was a little intimidated by the bustle of people, and Joe certainly didn’t appreciate this ship as much – it was more looking and listening than exploring and touching, and that’s not his forte. However Toby declared it his favourite ship of the lot – swayed mostly, I think, by the copious amounts of weaponry on board. They did all brighten up and stayed overlong in the punishment section, where daddy gave a full and impressively detailed account of leg irons, and the various beating implements and techniques (ranging from a whippy stick to a cat o’nine tails) hanging from the beams. Sometimes I forget that he was once a small boy too.

Walking back up the dockyard we stopped to view the Trafalgar Sail – still intact from the battle of Trafalgar where it was damaged and taken down and stored on HMS Victory. This was a quick ‘on the way’ stop to the harbour boat trip, but turned out to be the total gem of the day. Downstairs we were greeted by two modern Sailors – one of whom kindly helped me upstairs in the lift with the pushchair whilst the other organised photos of the boys wearing his hat. Toby was in awe of this amazing uniform-wearing solider/sailor man, utterly proud in the hat - and completely lost the power of speech.
Upstairs we found the sail stretched out on the floor of what is in effect a large warehouse, complete with cannon holes and battle damage. As we looked at it, a film started, telling us the story of the Battle of Trafalgar – and for 7 minutes the boys watched, utterly enthralled and transported. The film is magnetic, compelling, realistically and brilliantly done – one of our friendly sailors told us afterwards it had been made by 20th Century Fox whilst they were making ‘Master & Commander’. In that dim warehouse, watching that film with the real sail laid out before them, all the experiences and information the day had thrown at the boys solidified into a true understanding of what we had been talking about. They understood the bravery, the horror and the hardship of being aboard these ships, and the less glamorous reality of battles they had previously taken as fun cannon popping. I think for the first time they really felt and understood a part of history.

The harbour tour was a much-welcomed chance of respite for tired legs, though a slight let down for us all. We were apparently ‘lucky’ as all the ships were in residence in the harbour, but for a landlubber like me a 40 minute discussion of ship types, classes and names became a little tedious – I would have loved far more information on the old buildings I could see stretched out along the dockyard.

The last stop for our day was ‘Action Stations’, and this is where the boys let rip – stepping back into the contemporary Navy, there are lots of areas where you try your hand at various Navy skills – climbing walls, helicopter simulators, shooting games, computer programmes etc. The boys were content and involved, and I was happy to allow a tired and grumptious Ella free reign to wander round and round and round – conveniently in the middle of the hall is this years Royal Navy Photographic Competition entries, and this allowed me to enjoy the (very good) exhibition in unexpected peace. We stayed there until closing time, and dragged our tired feet back to the car, all chattering constantly about what we had seen and done, learned and marvelled at.
We have at least another days visit to see the rest of the attractions covered by the all-inclusive ticket, and the years entry it includes to most of the attractions means that we can really make the most of the ticket.

We had a truly great and memorable day, and long after small tired people were fast asleep in their beds we sat out in the garden over a mug of tea, still chatting over the things we had seen that day.

Website: www.historicdockyard.co.uk

Portsmouth Historic Dockyard - What THEY Say...

Visit the world famous historic ships at the home of the Royal Navy. Go aboard HMS Victory, HMS Warrior 1860 and see the Mary Rose for the best day out in the South of England.

Portsmouth Harbour’s leading attraction also includes the Royal Naval Museum, Action Stations and Harbour Tours.

The Historic Dockyard is a great place to experience 800 years of naval history surrounded by working docks and historic buildings.

We have lots of things to do for the kids, plenty of family events, school holiday activities, talks and exhibitions.