Archaeology Discover Centre facts for kids
The museum in the casemates of Fort Victoria.
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| Established | 1990 |
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| Location | Fort Victoria, Isle of Wight, England |
| Type | Archaeology |
| Public transit access | Yarmouth |
The Archaeology Discover Centre was a special museum located at Fort Victoria on the Isle of Wight, England. It was also known as Sunken Secrets and the Underwater Archaeology Centre. This museum was a place where you could learn all about amazing discoveries made underwater.
Archaeologists from the Isle of Wight ran the museum. It was set up inside five old casemates (strong rooms) of the fort. Since it opened in 1990, the museum showed off items found from many local shipwrecks. It also displayed things from ancient lands that are now underwater in the Solent area. Some famous wrecks featured included HMS Pomone and HMS Invincible. You could also see finds from the Yarmouth Roads Wreck and Bouldnor Cliff. The museum even had an exhibit about the history of Fort Victoria itself.
Contents
History of Underwater Discoveries
After the wreck of HMS Pomone was found near The Needles in 1969, the Isle of Wight Council helped fund a team. This team researched and dug up items from the wreck site. In 1984, another shipwreck was found right off the coast of Yarmouth. Work soon began to explore that site too.
In 1990, a group called the Isle of Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology was started. They opened a museum at Fort Victoria. It was first called the Maritime Heritage Exhibition. Many items found from the underwater digs were shown here. Other finds went to the Royal Naval Museum in Portsmouth and Bembridge Maritime Museum.
In 1991, the Trust grew and became the Hampshire and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology. This charity explored even more underwater archaeology in the area. They discovered the amazing site of Bouldnor Cliff in 1999. The Trust updated the museum, and it reopened in 2006 as the Underwater Archaeology Centre. In 2013, its name changed again to Sunken Secrets. In 2017, local people took over running the centre.
What You Could See: Amazing Exhibits
The museum had two main types of exhibits:
Shipwrecks: Time Capsules of the Past
This part of the museum showed why so many ships sank in the Solent area. It explained how shipwrecks are like "time capsules" from the past. They hold clues about life long ago. You could see items found from the Trust's underwater digs. The exhibit told the stories of ships like HMS Pomone and HMS Invincible. It also featured the Yarmouth Roads Wreck, which many believe was the Spanish Galleon Santa Lucia. Other wrecks from the Needles and Alum Bay were also highlighted.
Submerged Landscapes: Ancient Worlds Under the Sea
This exhibit taught visitors about the history of the Solent. Long ago, the Solent was a dry river valley. But then, sea levels rose, flooding the valley. This created the strait (narrow waterway) we see today. This section focused on the Trust's work at Bouldnor Cliff. You could see real tools and items found from this ancient land now deep under the sea.
Museum Closure
The Sunken Secrets/Archaeology Discovery Centre museum closed for good in 2019. The amazing items that were on display there have been moved. You can now see them at the Maritime Trust's Shipwrecks exhibition at Arreton Barns on the Isle of Wight. The building at Fort Victoria that used to house the museum has now been changed. It is now a mix of gift shops and other exhibition spaces.
