ON SUNDAY November 1, the Pevensey Timeline Association begins to unveil plans to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the beaching of the Pevensey Whale. One of the largest finback whales in the world was beached in the Pevensey Haven, at what we now call Norman’s Bay on 13 November 1865—Pevensey Timeline Association 29 October 2015
In the summer of 2016, with a price tag of £5.9 million “Whale Hall’ opens in Cambridge, to become one of the wonders of the Modern Museum World.
The star exhibit, suspended over two storeys, in a modernist architectural annexe, is to be the skeleton of the Pevensey Whale, likely to become one of the most engaging museum gateway visitor experiences in the country.
The Ocean Song Team, from the University of Cambridge Museum of Zoology, host to Whale Hall, has already been to Pevensey to record the soundscape that will be part of the visitor experience that will become part of Whale Hall.
The opportunity for Pevensey Bay and the locality to benefit from what will become a museum story that will draw national attention is now gaining momentum.
It was here that the story began.
Links between the locality and the University of Cambridge Museum of Zoology are now established.
There will be opportunities for local businesses to benefit by becoming suppliers of merchandise officially licensed by the Pevensey Timeline Association.
A number of announcements will be made about plans in the locality to make the historic story of now legendary status of sustainable benefit to the economic regeneration of the area..
On 13 November we will explain how we intend to see that local hotels, beds and breakfast establishment, cafes, public houses and service based establishments will be able to benefit from a national story that for Pevensey Bay is only just beginning.
How many of the people that will be visiting Whale Hall, both nationally and internationally will be wanting to come to the locality to see where the story began?
What opportunities will there be for them to find out more about the story of the beaching of the Pevensey Whale as the story was experienced here by local people in 1865?
In preparation for the 150th commemoration of the beaching of the Pevensey Whale on 13 November 2015, the University of Cambridge Museum of Zoology has today (29 October) pre-released a recording of the children of Pevensey and Westham School recreating in sound a skipping rhyme that the Pevensey Timeline Association discovered in a local newspaper dated 1932.
In the account, by a retired military figure, a childhood recollection was made of a skipping rhyme sung in local school playgrounds at the time of the beaching of the whale.
The Pevensey Timeline Association believes that the skipping rhyme would in all likelihood have been sung by the side of the whale in November 1865.
The Museum team in Cambridge said about the recording today, (29 October) “In July 2015, the Public Engagement team went to Pevensey and Westham C.E. Primary School with a very special mission: to collect the children of Pevensey today reciting a skipping chant created by the children of Pevensey 150 years ago inspired by the size and smell of the Finback Whale when it washed ashore there.
“We had a wonderful time, and the pupils and staff were brilliant in helping us to capture this unique rhyme! And here it is in all its glory”.
The story of the Pevensey Whale for local businesses and the whole community has just begun.
Commenting on the commemoration, Dianne Dear, chair of Pevensey Timeline Association, who is also publisher of Bay life, said “the story of the Pevensey Whale started here in our locality, so it is right that we investigate fully how the telling of the story at a local level can potentially benefit businesses across the area”.
“We are moving towards the national publicity for the new Museum when it opens in the Summer of 2016. The University of Cambridge Museum of Zoology will open their doors to visitors from around the world. Visitors will be witnessing one of the modern wonders of the Museum world, the star exhibit, the Pevensey Whale, in the new home”.
“It is a very exciting time for the Museum as the momentum builds, it is also an exciting time for us as an association building the profile of the story here in the locality”.
“We hope that people will approve of what we plan for the telling of the Pevensey Whale story to new local visitors that will want to come to see where the story began”.
‘It is not every day that a small coastal community gets the opportunity for £5.9 million worth of free publicity”
Pevensey Timeline Association
29 October 2015
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