The main aim of the project was to establish a tight, layered and complementary cross-border partnership in order to jointly improve, develop and promote our common maritime heritage and shared history.

The main objectives were:

- to develop intense and sustainable contacts between partners in order to share expertise

- to increase awareness and understanding of the cross-border region’s rich maritime heritage as an important tourism and cultural resource

- to develop innovation in maritime heritage sites, using digital media and innovative IT applications, sharing expertise between partners, and professionalising smaller associations

- to highlight and celebrate the shared maritime traditions, heritage, cultures and ‘coastal lives’, including personal stories

- to establish the most comprehensive, interesting and thriving maritime heritage destination in Europe

- to increase investment and visitor expenditure in the maritime heritage sector and support the renaissance of these deprived areas.

These objectives directly supported the development of the cross-border area via:

- a contribution to the programme’s overall demand for building and advancing partnerships of cross border cooperation.

- an opportunity to give the inhabitants of the 2 Seas region a ‘sense of identity and local belonging’.

- support the cross-border area in the realisation of the Lisbon agenda (innovative development of maritime heritage sites).

- a contribution to the competiveness and growth of the cross-border area (quality of sites and tourism).

Our project positively enhanced the cross-border maritime dimension defined in the Operational Programme. The themes studied and activities developped within this project all tackled maritime issues: coastal tourism, history and heritage of the sea and the coast. The partners included in this network were selected according to their involvement in maritime heritage and their willingness to jointly develop it.

Activity 1

- thematical seminars (April 2011 in the UK and May 2012 in Holland) and exchange of expertise (during study tours, via Internet/email and ad-hoc)

- joint portal website 2.0 used by project partners as a communication tool

- 24 maritime heritage sites improved in terms of access, visitor facilities, conservation

-1 study tour on Activity 1 (April 2011 in the UK)

Activity 2

- a thematical working group, seminars (September 2011 in France) and exchange of expertise (during study tours, via Internet/email and ad-hoc)

- joint portal website to be used by project partners as a communication tool

- 27 maritime heritage sites improved in terms of interpretation, evocation or visitor information

- A total of 67 oral history interviews were delivered across all three activity areas

- 1 study tour on Activity 2 (September 2011 in France)



Activity 3

- a thematical working group, seminar (May 2012 in Holland) and exchange of expertise (during study tours, via Internet/email and ad-hoc)

- joint portal website to be used by all the project partners as a communication tool

- 2 touring cross-border photo exhibitions (Detroits and Lighthouses), 2 linked exhibitions on the history of the Channel and on piracy/privateers, 1 major event on the history of 125 years' of coastal tram in Flanders, 4 editions of the 'guide des fêtes de la Mer et de l'eau', 3 linked festivals on maritime culture and sea shanties in Blankenberge and Breskens, 3 exchanges of traditional folk groups per year, 1 maritime art exhibition

- 2 partnership visits on Activity 3 (Detroits in France in October 2010, Lighthouses plus the outdoor exhibition with photos of maritime festivals in Holland in May 2012).

Activity one: Accessing Maritme Heritage. A working group was set up for this activity, a staff exchange was held in the UK on this subject, and a workshop at the final seminar was dedicated to this activity in Vlissingen in May 2012. LP Medway Council improved access at the Guildhall Museum, feasibilty studies at Upnor Castle. PP2 restored visitor facilities for the dockyard railway, PP3 regenerated the riverside leisure area, PP4 secured land and held maritime acticities at the Tudor House, Margate, PP5 restored and made accessible a lightship as a cultural venue, PP6 improved visitor facilites at Reculver Towers visitor centre, PP13 did not achieve their project, PP14 improved visitor facilities on the Mercator ship, PP16 improved are around Knokke Heist lighthouse, PP19 set up visitor centre telling story of the Benoit Champy.

Activity Two: Interpreting Maritime Heritage. End seminar in Vlissingen. LP Guildall Museum river gallery displays and educational folder, multilingual signage for Great Lines Heritage Park and Interpretation at Upnor Castle. PP2 Railway interpretation, PP4 exhibition panels, PP5 documentation of refurbishment of LV21, interviews with previous staff and living museum, PP6 Educational and interpretation at Reculver park, PP7 Oral history recording programme, and audio guides PP8 Raversijde fishing village interpretation, PP9 multilingual trails and interpretation.

Activity Three: Highlighting Maritime Heritage Working final seminar workshop took place in Breskens, May 2012. PP9 Exhibition of history of overseas transport and privateers, PP10 organisation of international sea shanty, PP15 Exhibition and events to mark 125 yrs of the coastal tram, PP17 Organisation of the Detroits photographic work and touring exhibition. PP18 Coordination of maritime events and promotion and production of annual guide des fetes leaflets over several years and lighthouse exhibition.

a) target groups:

-the network of partners and their staff, who shared best practices, learnt from each other and united forces in joint development and promotion of maritime heritage products

-smaller organisations, who profited from the experience of larger, more experienced partners, in European territorial cooperation and innovation in maritime heritage sites



b) final beneficiaries:

-the residents of the project area who can (re)-discover their local and regional heritage and get a stronger sense of identity and local belonging. These residents can also profit from the economic benefits of investing in maritime heritage as tourist destinations (employment, flourishing of tourism)

-tourists to these maritime destinations, who can have an interesting time and learn something while visiting the high quality maritime heritage destinations during their holidays



The main benefits for each region are:

-renewed innovative presentations and higher accessibility of maritime heritage attracting more visitors who stay, spend and give a boost to tourism, even after the project has terminated

-Cooperation between project partners in each region and cross-border, improving knowledge and expertise, building new expertise and allowing cooperative products

-cross-border meetings allow project partners to get in touch with other similar partners in other countries (eg museums exchanging art or other exhibits for temporary exhibitions, making them much more complete)

-due to the repeated meetings and study visits project partners know each other and will find it more easy to cooperate in the future, once the project’s over.

Consumers should now know more about the maritime heritage product in this Transmanche region. When they visited the sites, the quality was higher, they learned more, and are reportedly more satisfied. This should encourage recommendation to others and attract more visitors.

Entrepreneurs working in the hotels, restaurants and cafés in the area should benefit from an increase in tourists, meaning higher revenues and possibly a need for more workers while more entrepreneurs may be starting their own business locally. Overall the initiative should support a boost in the tourist sector of the economy.

Community members previously ignorant of their region’s maritime history would have been made more aware of the local product and its developments through publicity. The project, by enticing more community members to visit the local heritage, also serves to give the local community a greater sense of identity & local belonging, a positive element supporting economic growth.

Local children can benefit from the educational aspects of the project’s results. The maritime heritage sites offer better, more interactive information suited for children, giving them a higher sense of the common maritime heritage of the 2 Seas and of their own history.

The funding has either allowed or simply sped up developments that could have been left at the planning stage.
Many heritage partners in the project area had never met each other before the project. This project has provided them with a framework to meet and get to know each other.
As a result, many partners have exchanged knowledge & expertise amongst each other, enriching and professionalizing their own local operation and activities.
Partners have not only exchanged knowledge & expertise but also helped each other in other ways eg exchange of exhibits for temporary exhibitions, cooperation outside the EU project.
Thanks to the cross-border cooperation, the project has been able to market the maritime heritage of the 2 Seas region as a whole, highlighting our shared maritime history.
Through the project, 30 organisations have gained a better knowledge and expertise of the European bureaucracy and should be more adequately suited for further crossborder cooperation. Many similarities in our history, traditions and cultures have been discovered and celebrated.

The HMS project was presented at the annual conference of the interreg IVA Programme to demonstrate how we tackled issues linked to the tensions between nature, heritage and tourism.
The LP has met regularly with representatives from other projects based at Medway Council for exchange of good practice, including participating in a local European Fair.
Several partners in the HMS project have found themselves in parallel partnership in later projects of the Interreg IVA 2 Seas Programme, the networking activities having supported the development of further initiatives. Partners' involvement in an EU funded project will hopefully give them the confidence to work on future EU projects with other partners.

Managing a 30 partner 10 million Euros project is possible ad there are disadvantages and advantages of running such a large project. The opportunities for sharing best practices and networking are greatly improved with a larger partnership and especially beneficial for a sector in which the organisations are generally small and the sector quite fragmented. The administrative burden on the lead partner is very heavy for such a large partnership at claim times and when doing a budget modification, but with regional coordinators in place and strong administrative support it is achievable. It has been very difficult for the lead partner to finalise the project due to not having a project officer in place and due to many of the regional coordinators changing jobs.
Make sure that all your partners are very clear about what is expected of them at the outset - and supply them with the logos, and guidance. Joint work on the Website was difficult and language differences did cause some issues with the entries onto the Website at the start. It is also very important to make sure that the content management system (CMS) is equally user friendly in each country and language - this did prove to be a problem for some partners in some countries.

Long-term results are many and varied. Strong new working relationships have been built between partners with regard to sharing best practice, promoting each other sites and in terms of future maritime festivals. More concrete results are the restoration and reopening of the many sites in this partnership especially as part of Activity one- such as the Chatham Dockyard train, the restoration of the LV21 Lightship, The Tudor House Margate, the restoration of the Christ Roi boat, Le Touquet Lighthouse improvements, photo archives at Boulogne and Etaples, Dunkerque lighthouse improvements, the Vlissingen Ship crane restoration, and the Groynes in Sluis to name but a few.
These will all last for many years to come and in many cases have avoided the non use or degradation of heritage sites or maritime archival information. We have also recorded oral histories of many old maritime workers for prosperity. Although the project comes to an end the relationships and partner working will continue between certain partners and I am aware of partners looking at potential future exhibitions, and exchanges in the future.

Some partners have already agreed on a long-term cooperation. This is the case of the National Fishery Museum in Oostduinkerke and the MuZEEum in Zeeland who have already started exchanging exhibitions outside the project's scope.

Some partners have already expressed their interest in getting involved with the partnership in relation to further projects (De Lijn, Canterbury, Blankenberge, Nieuwpoort, FRCPM, Musée Portuaire). There is bound to be more possibilities opening up within a partnership of 30.

Local coordinators are in a position to create opportunities for new partners nationally due to their direct networking capabilities involving the European community and known partners.

Continued close working is still taking place between partners and the maritime festivals and well as informal contact regarding exhibitions and interpretation.

Many of the HMS partner sites have been restored and opened to the public as a result of this project, sites which would have fallen into disuse. Visitors are now able to visit these sites and learn about a shared maritime heritage which binds the four territories closely together.
It is currently difficult for the lead partner to develop a new project due to resource issues and staffing levels. But partners are continuing to work together and liaise with one another regarding exhibitions, loans and festivals. We will definitely keep in touch with partners to see if there is interest in future partnership work and I am certain that many of the partners will work together on more specific areas in the future. It may well not be such a large partnership as this one but will probably consider on the cluster groups in the future Programme.