The Archaeology Discover Centre (formerly Sunken Secrets and the Underwater Archaeology Centre) was a

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

located in Fort Victoria on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. The museum was run by archaeologists based on the Isle of Wight. It was housed in five of the fort's former

casemate A casemate is a fortified gun emplacement or armoured structure from which guns are fired, in a fortification, warship, or armoured fighting vehicle.Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary When referring to antiquity, the term "casemate wall" ...

s. Since it was opened in 1990 the museum was used to display exhibits recovered from several local

shipwreck A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. It results from the event of ''shipwrecking'', which may be intentional or unintentional. There were approximately thre ...

s and the submerged landscapes of the

Solent The Solent ( ) is a strait between the Isle of Wight and mainland Great Britain; the major historic ports of Southampton and Portsmouth lie inland of its shores. It is about long and varies in width between , although the Hurst Spit whi ...

. These include the wrecks of HMS ''Pomone'', HMS ''Invincible'', the Yarmouth Roads Wreck and

Bouldnor Cliff Bouldnor Cliff is a submerged prehistoric settlement site in the Solent. The site dates from the Mesolithic era and is in approximately of water just offshore of the village of Bouldnor on the Isle of Wight in the United Kingdom. The preserv ...

. The museum also houses an exhibition about the history of Fort Victoria itself.

History

After the wreck of HMS ''Pomone'' was discovered at

The Needles The Needles are a row of three stacks of chalk that rise about out of the sea off the western extremity of the Isle of Wight in the English Channel, United Kingdom, close to Alum Bay and Scratchell's Bay, and part of Totland, the weste ...

in 1969, the

Isle of Wight Council Isle of Wight Council, known between 1890 and 1995 as Isle of Wight County Council, is the local authority for the Isle of Wight in England. Since 1995 it has been a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority, being a non-metropolitan cou ...

funded a team to research and excavate the site.Medland, p. 52 In 1984 another wreck was discovered immediately offshore of Yarmouth and work began excavating that site as well. In 1990 the Isle of Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology was founded and began operating a museum at Fort Victoria called the Maritime Heritage Exhibition. Several finds from the excavations were displayed in the museum, whilst others went to the

Royal Naval Museum The National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth, formerly known as the Royal Naval Museum, is a museum of the history of the Royal Navy located in the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard section of HMNB Portsmouth, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England. T ...

in Portsmouth and Bembridge Maritime Museum. In 1991 the Trust expanded into the

Hampshire and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, Dorset to the west, and Wiltsh ...

, a charity which went on to investigate more maritime archaeology in the local area and discovered the site of

in 1999. The Trust refurbished the museum which was re-opened in 2006 as the Underwater Archaeology Centre. In 2013 it was renamed Sunken Secrets. In 2017 the ownership of the centre passed into local hands.

Exhibits

Shipwrecks: The shipwrecks exhibition explores why there are so many wrecks in the Solent area, why wrecks are seen as acting as time capsules of the past, and displays finds from Trust excavations.Burdett & Insole, p 113 It includes the stories of HMS ''Pomone'', HMS ''Invincible'', the Yarmouth Roads Wreck (believed to be the Spanish Galleon ''Santa Lucia''), and other wrecks at the Needles and

Alum Bay Alum Bay is a bay near the westernmost point of the Isle of Wight, England, within close sight of the Needles rock formation. Of geological interest and a tourist attraction, the bay is noted for its multi-coloured sand cliffs. The waters and ad ...

. Submerged landscapes: The submerged landscapes exhibits explain the history of the Solent as a dry river valley before rising sea levels flooded it and created the

strait A strait is a water body connecting two seas or water basins. The surface water is, for the most part, at the same elevation on both sides and flows through the strait in both directions, even though the topography generally constricts the ...

that exists today. It focuses on the Trust's excavations at Bouldnor Cliff and includes artefacts recovered from the sea bed.

Closure

The Sunken Secrets/Archaeology Discovery Centre exhibition closed permanently in 2019. Artefacts on display have been relocated to the Maritime Trust's Shipwrecks exhibition at Arreton Barns, on the Isle of Wight. The building that housed the exhibition at Fort Victoria has been converted into a combination of gift shops and exhibition space.

References

Bibliography

* *

External links