PortCities
The history of two of the UK’s major slave ports; the legend of the monkey hanged for treason by Hartlepool fishermen; the stories of the Thames floating smallpox hospital Atlas, and of the couple who rode a scooter from Southampton to Australia are among those included on the PortCities group of websites, which was launched in 2003. PortCities UK explores the history of five ports, the events and people who shaped them and the communities that developed around them.
Partners from organisations in London, Bristol, Southampton, Hartlepool and Liverpool have worked to create the site – www.portcities.org.uk – supported by the National Lottery good causes distributor, The New Opportunities Fund (NOF).
PortCities UK invites visitors to experience the past by exploring the impact that major rivers and ports have had on the present. Selected accounts of events, people and industry create a rich picture of the cities. The interactive website enables public access to images from the historic archives, museums and libraries of the five partners. The online collection follows the digitisation of over 60,000 photographs, paintings, drawings and documents, most now displayed for the first time.
PortCities UK is a one-stop resource for people with an interest in exploring history, and for those with links to port cities through family history or work. The site aims to bring together the diverse threads of the UK’s ports and rivers to provide an entertaining and interesting learning platform for users.
Roy Clare, Director of the National Maritime Museum, 2000-07, said:
'Through exploration, trading, migration and commerce, Britain has acquired a pre-eminence in seafaring. Her ports, docks and anchorages still display a vividly international flavour as ships of various flags ply their trade. Communities and new cultures have grown and flourished as people have journeyed to and fro by ship. Today, 95% of Britain’s trade continues to travel by sea, but the cargoes are packed in large steel containers, which are unloaded by giant gantry cranes and the process involves few people. All the more important that we should be able to trace the history of our ports, to recognise the huge debt we owe the workers and their families for their past contribution to our international trading success. I am very grateful to the New Opportunities Fund and delighted that the National Maritime Museum is involved with our partners around the UK in bringing these human stories to life for learners of all ages via a modern, accessible website.’
Stephen Dunmore, Chief Executive of the New Opportunities Fund, said:
'The National Maritime Museum and its partners in Bristol, Hartlepool, Liverpool and Southampton are creating a wonderful resource through the PortCities UK project. It is particularly welcome that such an important site is being launched in National Archive Awareness Month, when the importance of archives to our diverse national life is being underlined.
'We are very proud to add PortCities UK to our web portal, where it can be accessed alongside the other treasures of UK libraries, museums, galleries and archives which have been digitised through our £50 million nof-digitise programme.’