We’re delighted to announce that our bid for funding for outreach to local schools in Deptford has successfully passed the first stage of the Evelyn Assembly application process. We will be presenting our plans to the Evelyn Assembly on Saturday 21st January, and inviting residents to vote for us!

We want funding so we can train young people aged 16-18 as our ‘young explainers’, giving them the skills to go into primary schools in supervised sessions to teach younger children about Deptford’s maritime history.

We absolutely love this idea because it would enable us to reach two different age groups in a single hit, and also because it is not just about bringing history to life, it will also deliver valuable training, skills and experience to young people, which could assist them in getting a job or moving into further education.

Our plan is to recruit 20 volunteers from local secondary schools and youth programmes, and train them through a series of workshops to deliver the outreach. They would also develop the ideas and materials needed for the primary school sessions.

We intend to deliver these sessions to four primary schools in Evelyn Ward:

• Deptford Park
• Sir Francis Drake
• Grinling Gibbons
• St Joseph’s

The Lenox Project has teamed up with local company Refinery Productions, which organises the annual science festival Smashfest UK, at the Albany, to bid for the funding. If we are successful, Refinery Productions will deliver the training and outreach through its own well-established ‘young explainers’ programme – so we will also be providing employment to local people and supporting a local business. Refinery Productions already works with all these local schools so has the contacts and arrangements in place to assist in setting up the sessions.

Anyone who lives, works or studies in Evelyn Ward, and who is 14 or over, is eligible to vote. Not sure if you’re in Evelyn Ward? Click here to see a map of the ward boundaries.

If you are eligible to vote please come along to the assembly before 12.45 – you need to allow enough time to find out about all the projects that are competing for funds, and enough time to cast your vote.

Evelyn Assembly takes place at the Lewington Centre, 9 Eugenia Road, SE16 2RU

Saturday 21st January, 12-2pm

Nearest stations: South Bermondsey/Surrey Quays

Download the flyer here.

We’ll be at the Winter Fair at Lewisham Arthouse this Saturday, so come along if you want to buy our fantastic t-shirts, tea towels or bags as christmas gifts and help a local community project into the bargain!

The fair takes place at Lewisham Arthouse which is on Lewisham Way, close to the top of Tanners Hill. There’s a selection of craft and gift stalls and refreshments will be available; it’s open 11am till 6pm.

We are updating our publications to reflect the current status of the Lenox Project, with the feasibility study now concluded.

The Lenox Project brochure is a four-page publication which gives a brief overview of our aims and objectives, the history of the site and the ship, and similar projects elsewhere in the world.

To download the brochure in pdf format please click here.

We are very lucky that the Lenox Project historian Richard Endsor is also a talented artist.

He has drawn up a sketch of how the Lenox might look in context with Royal Greenwich in the background – the Royal Naval College and the Cutty Sark providing a very fitting setting for this magnificent vessel. The Olympia Building can be seen on the right of the picture, with the Master Shipwright’s House behind it and the modern developments between here and Greenwich shown too. The towers and other buildings proposed for the Royal Dockyard site have been left out for clarity at this stage.

We were delighted to get a write-up on the Gizmodo website last month under the heading ‘monster machines’. You can read the full article on their website.

Of course the Tudor period was over long before the Lenox was built and launched in 1678, she is in fact classified as a Restoration warship, as is made clear in our historian Richard Endsor’s incredible book.

It’s great to get this kind of exposure, however, and we are very grateful to Mark Mayne who researched and wrote the piece for the website.

On a very wet August bank holiday Monday, a small number of the Lenox crew visited Dover to board the Swedish replica ship Gotheborg which was moored there for a couple of days on her way to Great Yarmouth.

It was fascinating to find out about the 18th century ship which she was modelled on, and how the replica, which was built in 2005, had been adapted to allow her to travel the world and sail into port on all continents.

Despite the appalling weather the Gotheborg was still attracting a large number of visitors, and we were able to see the crew being put through their paces on the rigging, and receiving instructions and guidance on the tasks that they would be responsible for during the subsequent voyage.

We were lucky to be welcomed by the crew manager Andrea and bosun Woody who gave us a brief explanation of the set-up on the ship and invited us to visit the ship again once she is back in Sweden, so that we can meet some of those who worked on her construction and fund raising.

The Gotheborg left Dover at 4pm, firing a salute from her cannons as she did so. If you are able to make it to Great Yarmouth for the maritime festival this weekend, do take the opportunity to go aboard the Gotheborg, it is certainly worth the effort.

The Dutch really know how to celebrate ships – and the general public has an insatiable fascination with them! This short film of the Swedish replica ship Gotheborg at the recent Sail Amsterdam festival shows this very clearly!

The Gotheborg is currently making a brief visit to the UK – after stopping off at Dover last weekend she will be visiting Great Yarmouth in Norfolk to take part in the Maritime Festival from 4th-6th September.

The Tall Ships Festival in Woolwich provided a great opportunity for The Lenox Project to spread the word about our plans to build a replica ship in Deptford. With thousands of people expected on the Royal Arsenal site, we were able to bring our plans to a new audience and as usual, we were delighted to hear the enthusiasm and excitement of everyone we spoke to.

We had spent some time revising and updating the display boards in the trailer and these were put on show for the first time – we were also delighted that we were able to buy a new ‘all-weather’ gazebo using donations from our supporters. This was a fantastic improvement on the one we have been using – not only did it give us lots of space in which to store our merchandise, but the gazebo was sturdy and waterproof enough to provide shelter during the rainy afternoon and evening, keeping our spirits up during the last few hours of the day.

Thank you to everyone who came along to meet us, those who gave us words of encouragement or offers of help, and who bought merchandise or joined our mailing list. Even the mayor of Greenwich Norman Adams and his deputy Olu Babatola dropped by to hear about the project – don’t be surprised if you see us in Greenwich Time next week!

We have some fantastic new t-shirts now available to help our fund-raising efforts, thanks to the designs created by Lush Designs in Deptford.

These t-shirts are exclusive to The Lenox Project and can be bought online for just £15 which includes second class postage within the UK. All proceeds from your purchase go directly towards covering our costs – printing flyers, updating our exhibition boards, paying our hosting costs and so on.

The design is printed on 100% cotton Fruit of the Loom t-shirts in ‘lady fit’ and regular unisex cuts. Ladies sizes are S (10-12 UK size), M (12-14 UK size), L (14-16 UK size) and XL (16-18 UK size). We also have unisex in S (40″ chest), M (42″ chest), L (44″ chest) and XL (46″ chest).

How to order

Please email buildthelenox@gmail.com with details of your order (number, type and size) and mailing address for delivery. Please also state how you wish to pay – by Paypal (we will then send an invoice to your email address), cheque or bank transfer.

We are very excited to announce that we’ll be present at the Tall Ships Festival in Woolwich on Saturday 29th August. The festival is part of the five day event being organised by Royal Greenwich during which a whole host of visiting ships will be moored in Woolwich and Greenwich.

We’ll be in Woolwich on the Saturday and we’ll be bringing our Saker cannon and lots of new merchandise including some fantastic t-shirts carrying the design above that you can buy to help us with our fund-raising.

A reminder of last year’s Tall Ships festival. Photo: David Graham

Festival events will be in full swing in Woolwich Town Centre – on Powis Street and General Gordon Square – and at Royal Arsenal Riverside, including No 1 Street with family entertainment from 10am till 10pm.

The line-up for the day includes:

– Live music with special guests
– Roving entertainers
– Nautical-themed children’s activities
– Traditional funfair rides
– Vintage vehicles
– Food and licensed bars
– A fireboat from the Fire Brigade
– Information stalls from local and national nautical organisations
– Nautical history re-enactors (musket-ball making, dockside rope and cordwaining, plus a – Naval encampment and Georgian Naval crews)
– Sunset picnic area
– Food, bar and activities at the Firepower Museum
– Local history and children’s activities at the Heritage Centre
– Fireworks grand finale at 10pm on the river