Visit to the Royal Museums at Greenwich
38 members went on a coach trip to the Royal Museums at Greenwich on Wednesday 10th September. The coach left Horndean at 8:15am and returned at 6:30pm and cost £12 per person.
The attractions we visited in Greenwich included the following.
- The National Maritime Museum with its new exhibition telling the story of the race to determine longitude at sea to mark the 300th anniversary of the passing of the Longitude Act in July 1714. The exhibition, which included a guided tour, set out the different (and often fanciful) ideas for finding a ship's longitude when in the middle of the ocean, and how John Harrison solved this problem by designing and building clocks that kept perfect time on a rolling ship that saved seafarers from terrible fates including shipwreck and starvation by enabling them to establish their position and navigate their ship's course accurately.
- The Royal Observatory which is the home of Greenwich Mean Time and the Prime Meridian of the World as well as being home to London's only planetarium, the Harrison timekeepers and the UK's largest refracting telescope.
- The 17th-century Queen's House which is a beautiful royal villa and England's first truly classical building which was originally the home of Charles I's queen and which now showcases a world-class collection of paintings.
- The newly restored and re-opened Cutty Sark which is the last surviving tea clipper and the fastest and greatest of her time.
Everyone who went on the trip would like to thank Julie Gadsden for organising what was a very interesting and enjoyable day out.
Andy Forbes, Vice-Chairman