- Spot spooky sights and sounds around site! This Halloween, we’ve got a few extra surprises on board for you to discover. Listen out for eerie noises in steerage and keep your eyes peeled for some gruesome additions throughout the ship.
- From 27-28 October, join the Brunel Institute for Conservation in Action and watch conservator Pieta Greaves from Drakon Heritage giving ‘the last passenger’ some TLC. The cormorant is one of the few objects to have been on board during the Great Britain’s return journey to Bristol in 1970 from the Falkland Islands!
- Travel back in time in Flash, Bang, Wallop – recently reopened in the Dockyard Museum! Fashion yourself as Brunel with a stovepipe hat or imagine yourself as a Victorian with a bonnet or fiddler cap. For an extra special souvenir of your visit, try on an overcoat or dress and pose for a portrait at the ship’s launch.
- Wander the cabins in steerage and discover what a voyage on the SS Great Britain was like for the Victorian lower classes. Listen out for the sounds of life on board, including extracts from real passenger diaries, or climb into a bunk and imagine spending a night at sea.
- Meet passengers and crew from around the world on our Global Traveller Trail. Based on real people who travelled on board the SS Great Britain, this is a hands-on way of exploring their stories and the ship’s history. Collect your trail upon arrival to start solving the clues!
- Pick up your own Engineer’s Satchel and become Brunel’s apprentice. Explore the ship and dockyard and enjoy exciting activities, solve problems, and learn the important skills that make a great engineer.
- All hands-on deck! Grab a brush and get scrubbing the Weather Deck. Work with your fellow shipmates to keep things ship-shape and Bristol fashion. Who can scrub the fastest and end up first over the First-Class line?
- Be sure to stop and talk to Mr Brunel, who will be there to greet you at the grand entrance! Why not challenge him with your questions about Victorian engineering? Don’t forget to pose for a selfie with the great Victorian engineer in front of the SS Great Britain.
- Hop on board a shaking 1830s railway carriage in Being Brunel and compare your sketching skills to IKB himself. Can you draw a perfect circle in this interactive game? Brunel wanted passengers on his new Great Western Railway to be able to travel ‘noiseless and smoothly at 45 miles per hour’ and before designing the line had travelled on other railways like the Liverpool & Manchester, where he drew shaky circles in his notebook to illustrate how rough the ride was for travellers.
- Think you know Brunel well? Come and see the world through Brunel’s eyes in a multi-sensory cinema experience, in Being Brunel. Step inside his mind and explore his projects as they unfold around you. Please note this experience includes special effects and is in an enclosed space.
Author: Danielle Vincent
