Great Yarmouth's outstanding Time & Tide Museum presents their amazing 'Super Models' exhibition

The Time & Tide museum is one of Norfolk’s real treasures, and offers the best introduction you’ll find to the fascinating and historic town of Great Yarmouth.

 

Set in a beautifully preserved Victorian curing works, Time & Tide tells the story of Great Yarmouth from its Ice Age origins to the present day.  Discover the town's rich maritime heritage and its development as a popular seaside resort. Hear gripping tales of wreck and rescue and meet colourful characters who made their living from the sea.

This dynamic and family-friendly museum places fascinating archive films alongside recreations of local cottages, a noisy 1950s fish wharf and the charming shops of a 1913 ‘Row’.  The highlight is the unforgettable chance to step inside one of the towering original smokehouses, where the smell of smoked fish still lingers. 

 The museum regularly updates exhibitions and the latest one called 'Super Models' is a real winner, featuring characters from the movie 'One Million Years B.C.' and 'Wallace & Gromit - The Curse of the Were-Rabbit'.

This model of a Fisherman's Cottage was made by Norfolk model maker Joesph  'Darby' Evans. He often used recycled materials in his work. The cottage was made from salvaged wood that he helped to construct while workign as a pile-drive foreman

 

Visit the ' Lydia Eva ' Newly Restored Historic Steam Drifter Moored at Great Yarmouth.

An extensive makeover over the winter months has got the steam drifter  Lydia Eva looking her best since her launch over 80 years ago from Crabtree's Slipway in Great Yarmouth.

All on-board fixtures have been painted and varnished, brass has been polished and many mechanical parts, such as the ships telegraph have been completely overhauled.

Now volunteers caring for this historic vessel on the River Yare are aiming to make her a new season attraction for visitors to the town.

She opens to the public on on April 7th and visitors will be able to tour her seven days a week. Entry is free but there is also the opportunity for guided tours for individuals, private groups and schools.

Following an appeal in the EDP for new skippers, 12 people applied with the necessary qualifications to take charge of her when she goes out to sea. That means she will take people out on at least four occasions this summer.

This will be an expensive year for her because at the end of the season she has to go into dry dock for essential maintenance jobs - a cost of more than £20,000

To help with fundraising, Norfolk raconteur Keith Skipper has agreed to do a concert to support her and Gorleston Pavilion is giving the venue free-of-charge for the event on October 9th 2014, which will also feature some of the area's best musical talent. Tickets available from the Gorleston Pavilion Box-Office on tel: 01493 662832

And as well as the Lydia Eva, visitors will also be able to step on board her sister ship, The Mincarlo, which is moored at the Maritime Heritage Quay in Lowestoft. She is the last trawler of her type and will be open to visitors from late May.

The Mincarlo is in the early stages of restoration and it is hoped to get her fully operational.

Anyone interested in a hands-on experience can get further details at www.lydiaeva.org.uk

Great Yarmouth Landmarks Recreated in Colourful Miniature

The exceptional Time & Tide Museum in Great Yarmouth is set an old Victorian Herring curing works and recreates the history of Great Yarmouth for visitors to experience. 

The latest attraction of the museum to captivate and enthrall is a quirky, automated miniature model of mechanical wizardry and saucy seaside tongue-in-cheek fun created by Suffolk toymaker Ron Fuller.

The exhibit was commissioned by the museum in response to visitor feedback requesting more interactive items, and it more than fits the bill with its bawdy, buxom Britannia swivelling her hips and spinning, a Greek Orthadox priest swinging his incense, and a couple of fishing wives riding the Joyland Snails (a great favourite of tourists and locals of Great Yarmouth, as well as some Hobbies staff ). 

Two clowns tumble a ball, a Spitfire circles a colourful revolving tower; Nelson walks the plank, an excitable dog barks, and a cheeky seagull swoops to steal a tasty treat - all fun scenes depicting Great Yarmouth's history and humourous holiday heyday. The mechanical exhibit will be the centrepiece of a  newly modelled Seaside Gallery which includes a 1950s themed seaside display showing fashions of the day, and even a replica bathing hut. Admission to the exhibit is 20p

Mr Fuller, 77, said he had great fun making the exhibit which has "as many working pieces as a Boeing 747". It took him 11 weeks and over 500 hours to complete the exhibit which meticulously recreates details of tattoo studios and seafront toilets featuring alongside a Circus Spectacular, and even a figure, representing the growing Portugese community, waving to the crowd. The exhibit also features two of Great Yarmouth's unique attractions which are no longer there, namely the Revolving Tower and the Hotchkiss Railway. The tower was removed for the war effort with the metal used to build Spitfires. The Hotchkiss Railway was a bizarre commuter track for cyclists and was sold to Blackpool.

Mr Fuller studied art & theatre design at the Royal College of Art. He had a career in teaching before going on to make wooden toys for a living in 1972. His work is highly prized and sold in specialist shops world-wide.