Over the Moon Party Shop, based in North Road, Pevensey Bay, run by entrepreneur Daina Martin, is today celebrating with news that the company has been awarded the first of a series of merchandise contracts to support the promotion of the story of the Pevensey Whale in the locality.
The Pevensey Whale is to become the centrepiece of the iconic University of Cambridge Museum of Zoology, home to many national treasures like some of the Charles Darwin exhibits and archives.
The skeleton of the Pevensey Whale, one of the largest finback whales ever beached in the world, was washed up on the shore, in what is now Norman’s Bay, in November 1865. The whale was 71 foot long and the same weight as eight double decker buses.
Contemporary newspaper reports suggest that up to 20,000 people came to see the beached whale, many of them arriving by train on special day trips organised and promoted by the London and Brighton South Coast Railway.
This November marks the 150th anniversary of the beaching of the Pevensey Whale.
The skeleton is to be displayed over two floors of the new museum, as a gateway, and will glow at night. The first stage of the Museum was opened by David Attenborough on 21 April 2015. It a new centre for biodiversity conservation in his name.
The Museum has been awarded £1.8 million from the National Lottery to launch ‘Whale Hall’. The project has an eventual price tag of £5.8 million and is to open in the summer of 2016.
Displayed in its new home, the iconic status of the finback Pevensey Whale skeleton looks set to become an international phenomenon.
The University of Cambridge Museum of Zoology has already formed links with the Pevensey Timeline Association..
The Pevensey Timeline Association is now acting as a local partner in the enterprise, investigating aspects of the story of the Pevensey Whale and what happened when it was beached here in 1865.
The University of Cambridge project management team behind the Museum of Zoology is due here in Pevensey in the next few months, as part of the plans to launch ‘Whale Hall’.
Tracey Biram, communications manger for the project explained that the prestigious institution plans a visit to Pevensey in the summer of 2015 in the company of Chris Watson, an internationally renowned soundscape artist. His work features in the BBC Life on Earth series, made by David Attenborough.
“The Ocean Song project includes at its core a series of 20 workshops with people from across Cambridge and beyond, where we will be exploring the sounds of nature, how animals produce and perceive sounds, and exploring our own voices and the sounds we can make. Recordings will be made of these voices of the community, and combined with natural sounds, including recordings of the ocean at Pevensey, to create an atmospheric sound installation for the new Whale Hall”.
Discovered by the Pevensey Timeline Association, in a newspaper dated 1932, is a skipping rhyme sung by children in the locality at the time. In all probability the rhyme was sung by the side of the Whale in 1865.
It is this rhyme that is to feature in the first of a series of merchandise initiatives that are to be developed locally in relation to the story of the Pevensey Whale.
The skipping rhyme will appear on fine china mugs, produced and marketed by the Over the Moon Party Shop, which is responsible for work with childrens’ and anniversary celebrations, marriage and party promotions, from its shop in Pevensey Bay.
Dianne Dear, chair of the Pevensey Timeline Association said she was ‘delighted to award the contract to a local company’.
In response to the Pevensey Timeline Association, on hearing the news today (April 29) owner of Over the Moon Party Shop, Daina Martin, commented, ‘I am honoured. Thank you‘.
Over The Moon Party Shop began life in the Bay two months ago. It has already made an impact on the life of the local community by providing the backdrop to the Election 2015 Hustings debate at the Priory Court Hotel in Pevensey, with a unique gateway arch of balloons linked together in party colours.
The contract to produce the fine china mugs with the skipping rhyme is likely to create interest locally and nationally.
The fine china mugs with the image of the childrens’ skipping rhyme, from the newspaper cutting in 1932, are to go on sale from late May.
