Lord Ivar Mountbatten 'proud' to walk in footsteps of great-uncle Earl Mountbatten on 60th anniversary tour of Buckler's Hard

Lord Ivar Mountbatten said he was “proud to walk in my great-uncle’s footsteps” during a special 60th anniversary tour around Buckler's Hard Maritime Museum.

Earl Mountbatten opened the facility six decades ago after sailing along Beaulieu River with Edward, Lord Montagu and Belinda, Lady Montagu.

The visit started with a river sailing, accompanied this time by director of Beaulieu Enterprises, Mary Montagu-Scott. Lord Mountbatten was taken to the facility aboard pilot cutter Amelie Rose which recently featured in the BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations.

Inside the museum, he enjoyed artefacts including Nelson’s baby clothes, along with displays about famous ships built at Buckler’s Hard and the lives of the shipwrights and their families for whom the tiny hamlet was home.

After the tour, he said: “I was proud to walk in my great-uncle’s footsteps and see the fascinating exhibits in Buckler’s Hard museum, against the beautiful backdrop of the maritime village on a sunny spring day.”

A decade ago, during the 50th anniversary celebrations of the museum where he performed a re-dedication of the museum, Lord Mountbatten was presented with a limited-edition David Bell print of Nelson’s favourite ship, Agamemnon.

And he was delighted to see the newly opened ‘HMS Agamemnon Navigating the Legend’ exhibition which details the ongoing work into preserving the world’s only surviving wreck of a ship built at Buckler’s Hard.

The tiny village is where the ships Agamemnon, Euryalus and Swiftsure were built to form part of Nelson’s fleet for the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

Buckler's Hard dates from the 1720s when it was created by John, 2nd Duke of Montagu to import sugar cane from the West Indies. In 1740 it became a shipyard for the navy, and several war ships for the Seven Years War – which lasted from 1756 to 1763 – were built there.

Under the supervision of master shipbuilder Henry Adams, who built what is now the Master Builder’s House Hotel as his home, it thrived as a shipbuilding village.

At one time there were more than 40 homes in the tiny hamlet, but the advent of iron ships saw Buckler’s Hard go into decline. However, by the late 19th century it had become a popular place for day trippers after sailing down the river on a steam pleasure yacht.

The museum was created to give visitors an insight into the history of the village. When it was opened it was dedicated to the memory of “those men of Buckler’s Hard who built men of war.”

For more info visit: www.bucklershard.co.uk