The
Friends of the Newport Ship now seem well established, stable
and accepted a far cry from August 2002, when a bunch of "layabouts
and ne'er-do-wells" had a raggle-taggle gypsy camp by the
roadside.
Its
all very bucolic and Thomas Hardy - we now seem to operate in
an established calendar of regular Committee Meetings, public
relations exercises, open day guiding, events, visits and the
harvesting of the merchandise. Certainly much of the time I spend
on Friends business is very much low profile day-to-day administration
and guidance, punctuated with occasional outbreaks of attempts
at chairing meetings and damage limitation when Mr Ferris breaks
free.
I
don't think we at the Friends have become complacent, and recent
letters in the press about the future of the Ship are more indicative
of the writers' world view (siege mentality?) than life in 21st
Century South Wales. If the Ship was to be properly recorded,
and then conserved and displayed the Ship always was going to
be a "Big Project", both in terms of budget and physical
size. Even stopping at the recording stage (and I'm not proposing
that) would be costly. Such costly exercises lie outside the finances
of Newport City Council, and tend to involve the Welsh Assembly
and the Heritage Lottery Fund, bringing with it a particular approach,
requiring community involvement, consultancy, PR and a visible
wider educational role. This is a good thing, but broadens out
the project away from a purely local historic or archaeological
restoration project and does involve other stakeholders; it is
no longer ratepayers, boffins and the Council.
The
Ship is one of Newport's own symbols, but has an international
significance, as recent finds underline. We at the FoNS will continue
to support the Ship, and maintain our independence. Our membership
fund us, and it is to you we are responsible. We can comment (often
from an expert point of view) without being politically motivated,
and can disseminate information to members and the press cost-effectively.
I think we do a good job, and I think we've moved on from the
barricade manning days, but I'd also like to think we can still
put up a good fight if we needed to. As our members prepare for
their Roskilde trip I'd like to think that, in fifteen years time,
we'll have a comparable archaeological Ship Museum for the Newport
ship and its siblings.
I'd
like to congratulate Emma Lewis and her team in putting together
a great newsletter. Thanks are due to the Committee for helping
organise our many and varied activities.
The
Friends have a key role to play in demonstrating community involvement,
and the hours we put in do count as a form of "sweat equity"
for funding applications. Any members who'd like to help with
open days, research, giving talks, administration, merchandising,
articles, the newsletter or Charlie Ferris's wardrobe (be afraid,
the fancy dress tendencies are spiralling out of control) should
contact a committee member. It's our Friends, please get involved.
All
the Best for now,
Simon
