News

Heritage Lottery Funded work

The £688,000 Heritage Lottery Funded Conservation and Restoration Project has been completed and a reception to celebrate this work was held at Discovery Point on Thursday 2nd July.

Discovery has not had an engine since the Second World War and the engine space itself has been closed to visitors. Finally, after many years, the museum has been able to clean the bilges and repaint the space so that visitors can see the remaining features. A steel walkway now leads from the boiler room through the bulkhead and into the engine room. The tail shaft of the propeller extends into the space and the solid oak engine bed with its lead-lined protection can now be seen as well as the ‘A’ frame supporting the mizzen mast. Many of the original fittings were removed; so the museum has installed new interpretation panels to explain some of the features as well as giving some more history on the men who worked in the engine room.

This would not be possible without the funding we have received from the Heritage Lottery Fund.