Portsmouth Historic Dockyard’s Mary Rose Museum have been having fun with flags this May Half Term with daily workshops: Ghost Ship: Tudor Flag Making Workshops, in preparation for the Portsmouth Festivities: Ghost Ship – A Pageant for Portsmouth.
Children have been busy making some stunning colourful flags which they can then carry in the spectacular procession starting at the Historic Dockyard on Sunday 28 June. With a constant flow of families, a steady splattering of paint and beaming smiles it is a great start to the Portsmouth Festivities and is a sure sign of the fun ahead this summer!
The drop-in workshops have been running all week, for free, from Saturday 23 May – Thursday 28 May.
Hundreds of children across the city are taking part in a range of fun and creative workshops leading up to the Portsmouth Festivities. This year’s major celebratory event will mark the 500th anniversary of the accession of King Henry VIII and the commissioning of his favourite warship the Mary Rose, with a programme of events over 10 days in venues across the city.
With the children back at school next week, the preparations for the Portsmouth Festivities continue with a programme of workshops including music, dance, parkour, further flag-making, as well as a series of workshops led by the Mary Rose Trust and Southern Co-operative working in partnership with Portsmouth Festivities. To tie in to the curriculum and national initiatives, the school workshops will be on Healthy Eating, focused on good and bad aspects of nutrition in Tudor times and today.
Teachers will also be supplied with lesson plans to lead a Tudor Banquet Activity, inviting pupils to design and illustrate a menu for a Tudor banquet. Work will be displayed in the Mary Rose Museum, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, as well as in branches of The Southern Co-operative in the City.
They will also be given a Time Capsule Teacher-led Activity. The Mary Rose collection is often described as a time capsule, having sunk on 19 July 1545 with all her contents from clothing and cannons to nitcombs and other everyday items. Pupils will be asked to create their own time capsule for people to discover in 500 years, reflecting the way we live today. Shoe box size entries may include small, inexpensive items; photographs; artwork; clippings from magazines; packaging and decorated in an appropriate way. Only one shoe box will be entered per class.
The Time Capsules will then be handed over on 19 June, 2pm at the Mary Rose Museum with two class representatives and they too will be displayed in the Mary Rose Museum until 28 June 2009.
The Time Capsules will be judged by Henry VIII and the winners announced by him on 28 June 2009 after the procession to Southsea Castle. The winning entry will be incorporated into the new Mary Rose Museum.
The winning projects from both teacher-led activities will receive prize vouchers for their school, kindly donated by The Southern Co-operative.
The workshops programme culminates in a day of celebration on Sunday 28 June, Henry VIII’s birthday - Ghost Ship: A Pageant for Portsmouth. The events will begin at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard from 10am with activities and entertainment for all the family at the Mary Rose Museum, including music from the Nautical Training Corps, Falconry and Tudor cooking, Henry VIII and his court as well as sailors from the Mary Rose.
Please see www.portsmouthfestivities.co.uk for further details.
Photos courtesy of Sean Hounsell
