Tudor House Museum and Garden

NEWS UPDATE

News Update March 2008

Phase 2 Heritage Lottery Fund grant application successful

The city council has been successful in securing immediate development funding of £334,000, and an earmarked grant of £3.5 million, from the Heritage Lottery Fund. This will enable us to proceed with Phase 2 of the Tudor House project, to bring the building to life through the fascinating stories of people who owned, lived and worked in the building, with exciting new displays and the installation of improved, accessible visitor facilities, including a new café.

This month, specialist museum designers, Perks Willis, were appointed to develop plans for the new interpretative schemes. Consultation is also being planned with local schools to provide an exciting and involving education programme for the site.

Phase 1 Repair works nearly complete

The scaffolding on the main building has been removed to reveal the repaired and restored façade. Passersby can appreciate the skilled work which has gone in to repairing the roofs and chimneys, and can see where new areas of carpentry have been painstakingly matched in with the original woodwork.

Works are now concentrated on the Blue Anchor Lane wing, and it is hoped that these repairs will be completed, on schedule, by May 2008.

Work on Phase 2 should begin in spring 2009, so a series of events are being planned for Tudor House and its garden over the summer and autumn months this year. These will give people an opportunity to find out more about how the building has been repaired, and the plans for its future, leading to its full reopening in the spring of 2011. Further information on these events will be found on this website, and in the local press.

DATING RESULTS FROM TREE RING EVIDENCE

A dendrochronological survey – tree ring dating of structural timbers – has been carried out over the last year, and we have the results.

They confirm that the main body of Tudor House was built by John Dawtrey in 1492, replacing earlier tenements dating to 1444 to 1446 and owned by John Fleming. The two cottages that form the Blue Anchor Lane wing are also earlier, dating to 1448.
The Cottage – the small building next to Tudor House in Bugle Street - is a medieval building dating to 1461/2, which had its open hall floored over in 1631.

TUDOR HOUSE KNOT GARDEN

Devotees of Tudor House garden will be pleased to hear that the garden continues to be maintained while the building works are in progress.

For further information please contact the museums’ office on 023 8063 5904 or e-mail museums@southampton.gov.uk.

Museum events, education and outreach programme

Southampton Museums provide a rich and varied programme of events and exhibitions. We also arrange educational workshops and an outreach programme for schools.