As the Shipwreck Museum commences its main tourist season, which means that the building is now open seven days a week from 10:30 to 17:00, visitors should notice a few differences. The ropes and pulleys have all been renewed and fresh paintwork is in evidence, but the most striking feature is the new lighting in and around the Anne Gallery. Visitors can experience a sort of underwater sensation as blue lights shimmer across the medieval rudders and illuminate the area by the Anne display.
There is also a small but, for us, quite important innovation. As you pass through the dinosaur and fossil area, where youngsters are involved in handling dinosaur bones, colouring in, brass-rubbing and other activities, you will see an illuminated arrow on the floor. This is to try to draw visitors’ attention to the fact that the Museum’s displays continue on into the audio-visual theatre and out into the yard beyond. We found that, for some reason, so many people simply didn’t notice this and just carried on around the main building, not realising that they were missing some of the Museum’s most fascinating and unusual exhibits, including part of the Roman London Bridge, an Anglo-Saxon dugout canoe, Primrose (the only-known surviving example of a great Rye river barge) and two historic lifeboats!
So, if you were one of those visitors who missed this section of the Museum, come on back, follow the arrow and make sure you see everything this time.