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English Merchant Shipping, Trade, and Maritime Communities
Isaac Sailmaker (1653-1721) 'The Island of Barbados',
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Posted 2025-10-17 11:08:46 by Craig Lambert

The team recently launched a permanent exhibition of our project based in the Medieval Merchant's House in Southampton. Built in about 1290 by John Fortin, a prosperous merchant, the house survived many centuries of domestic and commercial use largely intact. Bomb damage in 1940 revealed the medieval interior of the house, and in the 1980s, it was restored to resemble its initial appearance and placed in the care of English Heritage. You can find more about this house here:  https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/medieval-merchants-house/. We are planning to develop more activities with the House overthe ckming years. 

 

 


  



Southampton Walking Tours

Thanks to our friends and project partners at the Sarah Siddons Fan Club Theatre Group – and to Dr Cheryl Butler, in particular – for producing three wonderful guided walks of our hometown. The walks relate the major themes explored in the project – trade, empire, shipping and maritime communities – to the physical geography and built heritage of Southampton. Each walk covers approximately one hundred years of history, and their respective routes take about ninety minutes to cover.

You can download the leaflets – in either standard or mobile-friendly format – here: