Nigel Nayling (University of Wales Lampeter)

The discovery of the Newport Ship occurred against a background of rapid and radical redevelopment of a depressed post-industrial dock town re-defining itself as the newest city in Britain. Initially perceived by developers as a hindrance to progress, and to many in the community as symbolic of traditionally dismissive council attitudes to heritage, it became an icon for dispute and campaign. Six years later, at the end of a major HLF funded programme of recording and education, what does the ship now represent? A huge cultural asset which can be used to leverage a renaissance of the regional museum service and the city's cultural profile, the centrepiece for a specifically maritime museum development or just another drain on a local authority with limited resources attempting to re-invent its city as a forward looking, modern urban centre?