Hanwell Solutions has helped preserve one of the most famous tourist attractions in the UK (the Mary Rose) by developing a temperature and humidity monitoring solution to ensure the correct environmental conditions are constantly maintained for the site.
Mary Rose, the 16th century warship sunk in the Solent in 1545, is now a museum after a 34-year conservation project during which Hanwell’s technology and environmental monitoring sensors played a key role, continuously checking and recording temperature and humidity of the ship during the drying out process to minimise distortion and the cracking of wood due to environmental fluctuations.
To this day Hanwell’s Pro technology continues to play a crucial role in protecting the historic vessel, recovered from the sea bed in 1982 and brought back to life for 21st Century visitors, as the Mary Rose Trust’s Head of Conservation and Collections Care, Eleanor Schofield, explained.
Eleanor says: “The Hanwell monitoring system was easy to set up to give us all the data we need. We link it to alarms, which are set so that if one sensor reports an environmental factor has become out of tolerance we can react quickly. The system enables us to get the problem sorted quickly, as well as helping us with routine maintenance.”
Because of the unique nature of the Mary Rose, Hanwell had to design a customised solution for the conservation team. The system has been a key indicator in monitoring the drying of the timbers – if something had gone wrong it would have affected the whole ship.
Over 30 sensors from the Hanwell Pro range are on the hull of the ship, continuously mapping the condition of the wood. The Hanwell system not only monitors the ship’s hull, but the vital data is also fed to the BMS system via MODBUS, data from the wireless sensors also control the separate air handling units for the collection of artefacts through a Hanwell custom built MS1000 control panel. Between the two control systems the critical environmental conditions are maintained between 18-20°C and 50-58% RH.
Eleanor concludes: “We continue to experience a good working relationship with Hanwell Solutions and support whenever needed. Our need to monitor and control the stability of the environment of course continues, measuring and reacting to how changes in weather, visitor traffic and so on affect the ship, so our Hanwell system will continue to be crucially important to the Mary Rose.”
Award-winning Hanwell is the UK’s leading manufacturer of wireless environmental monitoring equipment which is ideal for tracking conditions in the heritage, pharmaceutical, healthcare and food industries and related sectors.
Hanwell’s highly innovative platforms provide maximum flexibility and enhanced control of data and events from anywhere in the world via cloud or server-based configuration. Interactive graphs, tables and plan views enable users to easily analyse data in multiple ways, and user access levels can be managed through customisable groups.
The accuracy and flexibility of environmental management provided by Hanwell protects heritage sites not just from monetary loss but also from damage to irreplaceable historical and cultural items by instantly warning of compromised conditions.
