On November 13, 1865, a 71 foot long finback whale beached on the Pevensey Bay in England. Weighing about 96 tons, roughly the weight of 14 full-grown African elephants, this sight attracted hundreds and hundreds of visitors to the bay. According to reports, about 35,000 to 38,000 people traveled from all parts of the world to see this whale’s remains. The finback whale skeleton would later be taken to the Cambridge Museum of Zoology for eventual display.
This incident made such an enormous impact that it was advertised all over London, the South Coast and the Brighton railways’ by their publicity department. As a direct result, the platform where people would come on and off the trains was henceforth referred to as “the Pevensey Sluice.”
Since 1866, the finback whale skeleton has been in the Cambridge Museum and has not stopped making a sensation. As a matter of fact, in November of 2016, the museum plans to make it the main attraction in its new exhibition called Whale Hall. This exhibition will be the center stage of a brand new two-story attraction that has received $2,668,734 million to date, but is expected to raise about $8,747,517 million by the time its doors open in November of 2016.
The Cambridge Museum has chosen the Pevensey Timeline Association as a partner to research about the incident of the Pevensey whale on a local stance. As of now, four volunteers from this association are looking thoroughly through records, local newspaper archives and local history books for accounts, details, and maybe even pictures of the finback whale skeleton of Pevensey.
Chair of the Pevensey Timeline Association, Dianne Dear said, “This really is an exciting development for us as an association. It is validation of all the hard work that has gone into the teaching aspect of the project. To have been chosen to partner the launch of Whale Hall is a tribute to everyone who is putting so much work into seeing that the Pevensey Timeline becomes a sustainable success.”
The association plans to visit Pevensey in the summer of 2015. Chris Watson will be joining in on this visit. Watson is a renowned seascape artist, who is known for his work on David Attenborough’s, “Life’s Series” and “Frozen Planet.”
In addition, the Pevensey Parish Council is looking into the idea of building a whale sculpture that is to be commissioned in a park. On hearing about the plans for the new museum in Cambridge, Councilor Bob Peasgood said, “The idea to commission a whale sculpture locally is a brilliant one. We have been looking at the possibility of some kind of sculpture, and this could be the catalyst.”
