MCDOA donates £1,000 towards restoration of HDS Diving Museum
18 Sep 2024 - Yesterday, your committee agreed to donate £1,000 towards the restoration of the Historical Diving Society’s museum in No.2 Battery at Stokes Bay near Gosport. This sum will be matched by the National Lottery Heritage Fund making a grand total of £2,000. Your humble Vice Chairman & Webmaster must declare an interest as I helped establish the museum and am one of the HDS’s official advisors on naval diving.
As many will know, the museum’s collection includes many RN diving artefacts but the perishable rubber and leather content of these have been subject to deterioration owing to water ingress, condensation and the building’s high humidity. These problems are now being addressed as described in the museum’s blog but further work, and its funding, is still required.
Major remedial work has already been carried out this summer, including excavation of the battery, sealing of the concrete, damp proofing, underfloor heating, provision of wheelchair access and other facilities, but more is needed. Read and see much more about the ongoing work here:
The museum is staffed entirely by volunteers and former FCPO(D) John Dadd BEM is the Head Guide as well as performing Herculean work behind the scenes.
The Chairman of the HDS and prime mover of the museum’s restoration is ex-RN Clearance Diver Mike O’Meara.
Mike has sent this response to my advice of our donation:
“Dear Rob
This is wonderful news. Thank you so much for your continued support.
I must tell you that this most generous donation comes at a truly opportune time. As Autumn approaches we are nearing the successful completion of Phase 1 of the HDS Diving Museum Redevelopment Project. This has involved raising just over one million pounds which has resulted in a much drier building with improved wheelchair access, and air-source underfloor heating to counter condensation. The latter is already creating a much drier environment in which to house the collection.
In order for Phase 2 to proceed we needed another million to fund it; with this in mind the HDS Diving Museum was awarded £802,604 in July from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to the redevelopment Project to go ahead. We are in the process of building up our required match-funding of £240k
To date we have raised over £140K towards this with some significant grant providers on our project plan still to be approached. Consequently this extremely generous donation from the MCDOA will help in two ways:
Firstly closing our match funding gap and secondly from an influencing perspective; it allows us to demonstrate to potential donors and grant providers solid evidence of support from another truly significant body. This is a critical part of fund raising when potential donors look for evidence of existing significant supporters.
Be sure we will add the MCDOA to our growing list of supporters.
On behalf of the HDS, please convey our sincere thanks to your members.
Best wishes.
Mike”
Anyone can donate to the cause using this link. As the HDS is a registered charity (No.1159032), your donation will not only attract 25% Gift Aid if you are a UK taxpayer but this total will also be matched by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. For example, a donation of £20 will total £25 with Gift Aid and this will be increased to £50 with the matching funds.