The Mary Rose 25th Anniversary

The Mary Rose has proved a popular attraction for visitors to Portsmouth's Historic Dockyard, but preserving her timbers and effectively displaying the thousands of artifacts is proving a costly business.

The Mary Rose Trust has applied for a £21 million grant to complete the conservation of the Tudor warship and to build a new museum to house her.

Artist's impression of the planned new museum

The striking 'planked-hull' design would surround the dry dock where the ship now sits.
Space for school groups would be quadrupled. The area around the museum would be landscaped.

Displays would be added to take visitors back to the moments before the ship sank in 1545.

It would also give a new home to 14,000 stunning objects rescued from the sea bed.

Tudor historian, Dr David Starkey said: "The Mary Rose is the English Pompeii, preserved by water not fire. All Tudor life is there. It is like stepping inside a Holbein painting".

The Trust wants work to start in 2009 with the new museum opening in 2011 in time for the 500th anniversary of her maiden voyage.

But the next few months will involve and anxious wait for the Trust which had its last application rejected by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Mary Rose Trust Chief Executive John Lippiett said: "We've been working very closely with the HLF over the last year to address all the issues they raised last time.

The Mary Rose was 'A Tudor time capsule'

"We are confident we have a first class bid that will provide a museum of national and international importance.

"Without HLF support in the past, there would be no Mary Rose today. We receive no core government funding so we are very dependent on this fund.

"The new museum will make the Trust fully self-sustaining, so it's vital that we complete our project in this timescale".

Heritage Lottery officials will make a decision in January. If first stage approval is given then The Mary Rose Trust will have another year to develop their plans before going for final approval.

Meanwhile the trust is pressing ahead with plans to raise £14 million pounds towards the total cost of the project which is expected to be £35 million pounds.