Plans have begun today (28 May) to celebrate the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the beaching of the Pevensey Whale, in November 1865.
In Cambridge the new Museum of Zoology which will house the skeleton of the enormous 71 foot whale is already taking shape. ‘Whale Hall’ is now under construction. Over two floors the new gateway to the Museum will become an iconic reference point.
On Tuesday 21st of April, the Arup Building, the building housing the Museum and the Cambridge Conservation Initiative, was officially renamed The David Attenborough Building, in honour of the great naturalist and presenter.
The new Museum launches to the public in the Summer of 2016 and the initiative to commemorate the 150th beaching of the Pevensey Whale will see the team behind the £5.9 million project coming to Pevensey and the Bay to work with local people.
The Pevensey Timeline Association has been nominated by the University of Cambridge as the local project which is working as a junior partner in the enterprise to explore the story of the Pevensey Whale and what happened in the days that followed the beaching.
At the time, Tracey Biram, Marketing & Communications officer with the University of Cambridge Museum of Zoology explained how excited the team behind the project was with everything being done locally to support the launch of the museum.
She explained that the prestigious institution plans a visit to Pevensey in the summer of 2015 in the company of Chris Watson, an internationally renowned seascape artist.
“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”.
Today (28 May) Tracy confirmed that the Museum team would be coming to Pevensey early in July to plan the Ocean Song part of the project that will take place in Pevensey Bay.
She said, ‘thank you for the publicity and articles you have been creating at your end about the Finback whale, that has been much appreciated and great to see’.
‘A group of us from the Zoology Museum are planning a trip to Pevensey on 9th & 10th July in preparation for our forthcoming visit on 22/23 August for the Ocean Sing project’.
‘If possible, it would be great to meet members of the Pevensey timeline team for a cup of tea’.
Pevensey Timeline Association is now busy planning support for the visit, which will include a possible visit to what was the school playground in Pevensey where children would have sung the ‘skipping rhyme’ that has been re-discovered about the beaching of the whale.
Fine Bone China mugs, produced under licence on behalf of the association by The ‘Over the Moon Party Shop’ in the Bay, will have their first outing in the new community cafe about to open. The specially commissioned commemorative mugs with the skipping rhyme inscribed, re-discovered by the Pevensey timeline project team, will see service for the first time.
The new community cafe in the Bay at the Old Post Office is due to open in the next six weeks and will have a series of storyboards, one of which will include elements of the story of the Pevensey Whale.
