I’ve been fascinated by the Mary Rose, ever since I watched the wreck being raised from beneath the Solent as a toddler, so attending to see this Tudor ship is at all times a spotlight of a go to to Portsmouth – however with a lot to do at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard with children, it’s actually solely the start.
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Residence to Nelson’s flagship HMS Victory, in addition to HMS Warrior, as soon as the world’s largest warship, plus a string of different points of interest, it’s no shock that the Historic Dockyard‘s tickets features a 12-month Final Explorer go to provide you adequate time to suit all of them in.
However in case you’re solely you’re solely visiting Portsmouth for at some point, as we had been, and squeezing in a go to to the Spinnaker Tower as effectively, simply what are you able to handle to see at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard with children? Actually rather a lot…
The Mary Rose Museum
Evidently, our first cease needed to be the Mary Rose – I bear in mind seeing the ship right here again within the 80s with my very own dad and mom, however by the point I subsequent visited as an grownup, a serious £5 million challenge was underway to provide her a brand new dwelling and put extra reveals on show.
Reopened as soon as once more in 2016, I couldn’t wait to see her in all her new glory and introduce my daughter to the story of the ship, her wrecking and salvage.
And the Mary Rose Museum may hardly be extra completely different than my recollections of my first go to – which, let’s face it, had been nonetheless spectacular sufficient for me to recollect it vividly for many years! Then, guests had been stored on a walkway beneath low lighting with water jets spraying the traditional timbers.
At present’s high-tech, in-depth exhibition is a world away, and if I hadn’t needed to see extra of the Historic Dockyard’s points of interest, I believe I may have spent all day right here.
To begin off, you stroll by an interactive presentation narrated by Henry VIII himself, giving among the background in regards to the Mary Rose. His personal flagship throughout the wars with the French, she sank in 1545 because the king watched from the shore, with greater than 400 males killed.
It’s a very enjoyable approach to deliver the story to life for teenagers, earlier than moving into the exhibition galleries. And with loads of interactive touches all through, there’s little probability of youthful guests becoming bored by the mass of historic element.
Within the first room alone, my daughter was engrossed in a portray of the sinking of the Mary Rose, with touchscreens permitting you to decide on specific particulars to be taught extra about, from individuals pictured to on a regular basis life, in addition to extra in regards to the ships moored within the harbour.
Then there’s dressing as much as get pleasure from, in between studying extra background together with theories on why the Mary Rose sank, why so a lot of her crew had been drowned, and some artefacts together with the ship’s bell.
However across the nook is your first sight of the wreck herself, with a number of viewing galleries on completely different ranges. With components rotted away, you may see the entire skeleton of the ship – and it feels astounding that something has survived, though the stable oak used within the building remains to be powerful sufficient to stroll on.
Not that guests can try this, in fact, however with new glass panels by the walkways and an unobstructed line of sight to the ship, the views are higher than ever.
As with the remainder of the shows, it’s all been performed very cleverly – after gazing onto the darkened and silent ship for a couple of minutes, the wreck unexpectedly sprang to life, as sure areas on board had been illuminated with projections of their inhabitant going about their every day enterprise.
It offers you an concept of how crowded, noisy and customarily filled with exercise and bustle the ship should have been, with wooden being sawn, a canine barking, voices echoing; out of the blue as a substitute of a historic wreck, you see the Mary Rose as very a lot a dwelling ship.
A part of me hardly desires to spoil the impact, which took us by delighted shock, however as considered one of my favorite parts, it’s too good to maintain secret.
As you then discover the completely different themed galleries with extra reveals and knowledge, you retain having an opportunity to see the Mary Rose from the varied ranges as you go, which is an added bonus.
However there’s now much more to discover than merely the wreck. Among the first shows introduce you to individuals or occupations on board – even together with the skeleton of the ship’s canine.
Alongside the best way, you’ll be taught every part from what the furnishings and instruments you’d have discovered within the cabins, such because the surgeon’s tools, proper all the way down to the garments the grasp gunner was sporting, full with gunpowder stain.
The shows even recreate the faces of among the crew, in addition to intimate particulars found from their skeletons – the grasp gunner had horrible tooth and a healed fracture on his left hand, for instance, whereas the grasp carpenter most likely got here from Spain, was in his 30s and had the beginnings of arthritis.
Plus there are notes with added bits of trivia, and tips about particulars to look out for, equivalent to carved dragons in a single specific case – one other bonus for households.
There’s extra interactive enjoyable right here too: a recreation to see in case you may disable enemy ships reasonably than sinking them, an opportunity to get fingers on with stone shot used within the weapons, and even a duplicate of a jar from the surgeon’s cabin, which nonetheless smelled of menthol centuries after it was misplaced beneath the waves.
Elsewhere you can excavate objects from beneath the sand with a paintbrush, or see in case you’re robust sufficient to tug again the drawstring on a longbow – not really easy, no marvel the archer discovered on board had a broken elbow from doing that over and over!
There’s a lot data, this evaluation may simply change into a guide if I attempted to say every part, however consider me once I say permit loads of time to soak all of it in! You’re really useful to permit two hours at the least.
To complete, there’s a 4D cinema expertise, Dive the Mary Rose 4D, which is new for 2023 masking her newer historical past with the discovering of the Mary Rose in 1971, the lengthy excavation and the intricate salvage operation to boost the wreck in 1982, a feat that’s virtually as spectacular because the ship herself.
HMS Victory
Nelson’s flagship is the opposite best-known spotlight of a go to to the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard with children, the oldest naval ship nonetheless in fee worldwide.
And whereas the ship is at present coated in scaffolding, you may nonetheless go aboard to go searching.
Solely ever designed to final for round 9 years earlier than needing repairs, beginning energetic service in 1778 throughout the struggle of American Independence, then famously taking over Napoleon’s fleet on the Battle of Trafalgar, HMS Victory has survived for over 250 years.
With a lot of her timbers rotting, a £45 million pound revamp has eliminated the decayed sections and is aiming to revive the remainder of the ship over the following 10 years or so – which does imply that in case you go to now, you’ll get to see sections of Victory which have by no means been on show earlier than.
It’s straightforward sufficient to dodge the scaffolding, and whereas there could be a couple of detours on the route, we didn’t really feel that we had been lacking out on any of the important thing components of the ship both.
And what brings HMS Victory to life is the incredible audio information. Usually we are inclined to skip these as my daughter both desires to race by or rapidly will get bored of listening to the recorded information.
On Victory, it was fairly the alternative: she insisted we didn’t go away till she had listened to each final part (in addition to replaying the one on the poop deck a number of instances over!)
The narration builds up an image of occasions main as much as Nelson boarding the ship, the journey to fulfill the Franco-Spanish fleet, by to the Battle of Trafalgar till the Admiral’s loss of life after a sniper’s bullet, in addition to particulars about life on board – which was dwelling to over 800 crew members.
Strolling by the comparatively luxurious captain’s cabin (designed to be remodeled at a second’s discover if the cannon had been wanted), the surgeon’s quarters, the strains of weapons beneath decks and the kitchens, there’s every part from maps and drums to ornate rugs bringing Victory to life.
When you’ve explored inside, you may even head down to take a look at Victory’s hull. You’re instructed to permit round an hour to go searching, which is roughly how lengthy we spent.
If you wish to be taught extra in regards to the restoration challenge together with particulars of the challenges concerned, there’s additionally Victory Reside: The Massive Restore, which takes you onto the scaffolding, together with a household path.
You may also go to the Victory Gallery, which tells the ship’s full story past Trafalgar, with movie and artefacts plus interactive exhibitions. And to finish the set, the Nelson Gallery on the Nationwide Museum of the Royal Navy has extra on the Admiral’s life, together with his scandalous love life, triumphs and defeats.
HMS Warrior
With restricted time left to discover the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, our huge query was what else to slot in, as we weren’t wanting choices to complete our go to.
Torn between a harbour tour and the possibility to discover the dockyard’s third well-known ship, the massing clouds and the need to see the ship we’d noticed earlier that day from the highest of the Spinnaker Tower, meant that HMS Warrior gained out.
The most recent of the three nice ships at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, HMS Warrior was as soon as the world’s largest warship, the jewel of the Victorian Navy when she launched in 1860, and essentially the most superior ship of her time.
Britain’s first iron-hulled, armoured battleship, she is steam-powered – though additionally has masts and sufficient sails to cowl 13 tennis courts!
Not like the opposite two ships, there isn’t an audio information or an enormous quantity of data on board – as a substitute you be taught extra about HMS Warrior from the characters on board, from Victorian vacationers strolling on deck to the crew beneath.
Sadly, throughout our go to, there have been solely a few individuals round – maybe as a result of we had been exploring late within the day – so it did really feel like we most likely missed a number of the data obtainable.
Whereas we obtained a peek into the brig, with one character sharing some particulars on what may see you banged up within the cell, and noticed an engineer as we peered on the glow of the fires from the engine room, we didn’t stumble upon anybody else alongside the best way.
It’s nonetheless spectacular to wander round although. The deck felt big by comparability to HMS Victory, with the masts towering above, though the hanging beds and sensible opulence of the captain’s quarters felt very acquainted.
We did spot a couple of enjoyable particulars as effectively, together with the yearly pay for various ranks – amusingly the paymaster ended up going dwelling with the most important wage – and afternoon tea laid out for the officers, in addition to the communal bathtub with three tubs lined up subsequent to one another.
There was even a chart with tips about methods to tie knots, and a menu with some reasonably unappealing dishes together with celery seed soup, or preserved potato. Positively someplace to revisit to find extra of Warrior’s tales.
Extra issues to see at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard with children
We may simply have crammed our whole day at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, and a second one too – and whereas we did handle to see all three well-known ships, the Mary Rose, HMS Victory and HMS Warrior, there was lots left together with the next points of interest.
Harbour excursions
After so lengthy exploring ships in dry dock and studying the tales of among the Navy’s most well-known moments, you will get on board your self with a harbour tour round Portsmouth harbour.
In addition to seeing the town from the water, you may also get a have a look at among the fashionable Navy’s ships up shut, together with frigates, destroyers and plane carriers, all based mostly in Portsmouth, with commentary from the harbour tour captain, plus extra tales from Portsmouth Historic Dockyard’s previous and current.
It’s price figuring out that there are not any buggies or pushchairs allowed on board, though there’s a buggy park by Boathouse 4 close by, and excursions could also be cancelled if the climate is dangerous. The excursions are included in Final Explorer tickets (otherwise you might be able to purchase particular person tickets on the day), and locations on board are restricted.
HMS M.33
HMS M.33 is among the few surviving British First World Battle ships, inbuilt 1915 and the one British survivor of the Dardanelles Marketing campaign, together with the Gallipoli marketing campaign.
Guides on board share what life would have been like for these combating on the Japanese Entrance, together with movie, exhibition and recreated cabins from the ‘fortunate ship’s’ wartime service.
Motion Stations: Commando Expertise
In case your children want to burn off some power after exploring the opposite points of interest or fancy themselves as a future Royal Marine, Motion Stations is ideal, with loads of play and adrenaline-fuelled enjoyable within the journey zone.
For the smallest adventurers, there’s Sky Tykes, aimed toward children aged 2-7 with rope bridges and stability beams, whereas for age 7+, there’s a 40m assault course designed to check velocity, agility and stability – the document stands at 24 seconds!
Or in case you’ve obtained a head for heights, sort out the 8.4m climbing wall, with adjustable ranges of problem. Motion Stations is open at weekends and through Hampshire college holidays, whereas there’s additionally Laser Quest for a further payment.
Nationwide Museum of the Royal Navy
The Nationwide Museum of the Royal Navy tells each the story of the Navy during the last 350 years and the women and men who’ve served during the last 100 years, each in peacetime and struggle.
There are some gruesomely fascinating info (why are there at all times so many weevils?), reveals on the best way the Navy has influenced communities around the globe, in addition to a gallery devoted to Admiral Lord Nelson.
Boathouse 4
Boathouse 4 focuses on the historical past and craft of boatbuilding, with specialists sharing their data, interactive shows and a set of historic small boats.
With data on every part from 18th century cutter ships to Second World Battle submarines, it’s good in case your children are fascinated by boats massive and small.
Dockyard Apprentice
Quite than the ships, Dockyard Apprentice is all in regards to the individuals who labored on the Dockyard over a century in the past, with touch-screen know-how and a few immersive recreations serving to you be taught their tales.
There are many probability to get fingers on, testing your knot-tying abilities and holding conventional ship-building instruments, because the Royal Navy’s Dreadnought class ships had been introduced from the drafting board to actuality. Entry is free for all guests.
Royal Navy Submarine Museum, Gosport
The Royal Navy Submarine Museum is on the Dockyard’s second website in Gosport – you may take a waterbus from the primary website to achieve it (scroll down for extra particulars) – the place guests can discover Second World Battle sub HMS Alliance, in addition to seeing the Royal Navy’s first submarine, HMS Holland 1, in addition to the tiny 15m lengthy X24.
In addition to peeking by working periscopes, you may uncover what life was like at sea – or reasonably, beneath it – plus the half submarines have performed in British naval historical past.
Explosion Museum of Naval Firepower, Gosport
The Explosion Museum of Naval Firepower is dedicated to weapons and armaments – if it goes bang, it’s most likely right here.
Set at Priddy’s Laborious in Gosport, a website as soon as used to retailer munitions too harmful to be stored on the foremost dockyard, ships together with HMS Victory would have loaded their weapons and ammunition right here over the centuries, proper up till the Falklands Battle in 1982. You may also spot missiles, torpedoes and listen to tales of these concerned in making them.
Portsmouth Historic Dockyard with children: Must know
There are three tickets obtainable for Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, together with a one-day single attraction possibility (which additionally permits entry into among the smaller free points of interest) – helpful you probably have very restricted time to discover.
In any other case, there are two 12-month choices, together with entry to a few points of interest (plus Motion Stations) and the Final Explorer Move, which supplies you limitless entry to all of the Dockyard’s points of interest for the total 12 months.
You may also get discounted tickets through Tiqets in case you guide utilizing my hyperlink, utilizing code MUMMYTRAVELS6, or tickets with free cancellation are additionally obtainable on Get Your Information
The Final Explorer Move is barely dearer for kids, however the identical value for adults, so realistically, it’s price shopping for you probably have at the least at some point to discover and wish to see a couple of sight.
Opening hours fluctuate for the completely different websites and all year long – test the small print prematurely, because the Gosport websites will not be at all times open 7 days every week.
There’s paid parking very near the Dockyard website in Portsmouth, otherwise you’re solely a brief stroll from Gunwharf Quays which additionally has numerous parking in its multi-storey automotive park. The Dockyard can be strolling distance from Portsmouth Harbour railway station, and The Laborious bus interchange, plus a Park and Experience possibility which stops right here too.
To journey between the primary Portsmouth website and the Gosport websites for the Royal Navy Submarine Museum, and Explosion Museum of Naval Firepower, there’s additionally a waterbus working from Wednesday to Sunday between April and October. In Hampshire college holidays, it runs seven days every week whereas the Gosport points of interest are open every day, however exterior these instances, the waterbus runs at weekends solely.
The timetable is on the market on-line and it’s included with an Final Explorer Ticket. There are restricted locations aboard, and the waterbus might not run in dangerous climate. Solely umbrella fold stroller pushchairs are allowed on board; all different pushchairs and buggies might be left at one of many buggy parks at Boathouse 4, the Warrior jetty and on the pontoon.
There are a number of locations to get foods and drinks across the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard website, in addition to picnic areas if you wish to deliver your individual meals. There are additionally bathrooms with child altering in varied places across the website.
For extra issues to do in Hampshire with children on a household vacation, in addition to days out in Portsmouth for households, take a look at my high ideas
Disclosure: My entry to the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard was free for the needs of evaluation – all opinions, together with a lifelong obsession with the Mary Rose, stay my very own. This submit comprises affiliate hyperlinks – any purchases you make are unaffected however I could obtain a small fee
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