National Historic Ships UK have awarded LV50 the status -Virtual Flagship of the Year in recognition of your creativity and resilience in promoting continued online engagement with the vessel during the Covid-19 lockdown.
LV50 is a rare Victorian wooden lightship (the only one open to the general public). Constructed in 1879 for Trinity House, she saw service off the South and East coast of England from 1879 through to 1952 when she was purchased by the RNYC and has been moored in South Harbour, Blyth since then.
The Friends of LV50, an independent constituted group, was established to promote understanding, discovery, and communication of the heritage of LV50.
The Friends engage mainly with two groups of people; an older age general public (through a series of open days and lectures) and a younger age group through school visits. Since 2018 we have collaborated with the STEM Hub (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) hosted by the Port of Blyth. The Hub works with learners across the North of Tyne and particularly South East Northumberland, which has some areas of long-term deprivation. Through this outreach we welcomed school groups onboard using the unique atmosphere, ambience, and intrinsic functionality of the vessel to promote learning.
The COVID 19 pandemic stopped these activities and forced us to rethink our strategy. This led to a decision to develop an enhanced online presence to better support the community and local schools.
Our approach to reconnecting with interested visitors has been to develop a “virtual tour” of LV 50 in her setting within the historic South Harbour.
The process has involved:
• raising funds to undertake this extensive programme from the Joicey Trust, Community
Foundation and EDF Offshore fund
• identifying Immersive Media as a suitable contractor to record a self-propelled 360-degree tour
• commissioning a high quality cut away diagram of LV 50 based on working drawing by
renown maritime artist Roger Hutchins to orientate progress through the tour
• liaising with the Port of Blyth and surrounding industries to ensure adequate coverage of port function
• developing a series of informative vignettes that punctuate the tour, explaining features and functions
• most important, capitalising on our establish rapport with the Blyth Partnership of Schools, developed over several years, to allow a progressive engagement with lead teachers from the Blyth partnership to develop a series of learning resources in support of the Tour.
This resource substantially enhances and expands the opportunities for all visitors to understand and experience the uniqueness of an Historic Ship. It represents a huge repository of information available not just to local people but anyone anywhere with internet access.
The Website for the Friends of LV 50 can be found at
The “virtual tour” with all its imbedded material can be viewed at
https://friendsoflv50.org.uk/tour.htm
The primary school learning resources can be viewed at
https://friendsoflv50.org.uk/learning- resources/
Secondary school resources are currently in development.
The Friends of LV50 would like to acknowledge the help of the following people and organisations that made all this possible.
Sponsors: The Joicey Trust, EDF Renewables, The Community Foundation
Also, thanks to: The Royal Northumberland Yacht Club, Public Value Ltd, Immersive Media, NCC Library Service, Croftway Primary Academy, Newsham Primary School, Malvin’s Close Academy, Port of Blyth, Port of Blyth Training Services, Transped Global Logistics, Texo Group and North Sea Logistics.