MEET THE TRUSTEES

Dominic Tweddle

Dominic was educated at Stowmarket Grammar School before going on to the University of Southampton where he took first class honours in Archaeology and History.  He then undertook research on the Anglo-Saxon sculpture of south-east England, first at Emmanuel College, Cambridge and then at University College London.  He was awarded his PhD in 1986 and his thesis was published by the British Academy in 1995.

After working at the British Museum, Dominic was appointed Assistant Director of the York Archaeological Trust in 1979.  Dominic was responsible for research and publication across the whole range of archaeological excavations in York and wrote four works in the series The Archaeology of York.  His most important works were the publication of the 8th-century Coppergate Helmet and a seminal study on Anglian York.  Dominic was also responsible for the the public presentation of the work of the Trust.  He was lead researcher for the exhibition Vikings in England (Copenhagen Aarhus, You 1981) and exhibition director Vikings and the Way to the West (Reykjavik 1983), Viking Ships (York 1987) and Russian Holograms (York 1989).  Dominic was one of the small team which delivered the acclaimed Jorvik Viking Centre in York, and went on to direct the development of the Archaeological Resource Centre, a research centre combined with a hands-on experience of archaeology aimed at the general public.  The development saved the late medieval St. Saviour’s Church.  Latterly Dominic also directed the development and opening of Barley Hall a restored medieval merchant’s house in the centre of York.  In the midst of all of this, Dominic received a major grant from the British Academy to study and publish the group of Anglo-Saxon embroideries from Masseik in Belgium.

In 1995, Dominic left the Trust to set up his own business with colleagues, Past Forward Ltd., which was an early specialist in the application of digital technology to the study and interpretation of history and archaeology.  Key projects included the Vikings CD-ROM with the National Museum of Denmark, digital interpretation for Navan at Armagh, the virtual recreation of Coventry’s lost medieval Cathedral, and a suite of digital interpretation for Caesarea Maritime in Israel, among many others.  Inevitably Past Forward became drawn into museum and exhibition design and consultancy.  In 2000, Dominic led the merger of Past Forward with Heritage Projects into a new business the Continuum Group of which he became CEO and which owned, operated, designed and built heritage attractions.  Major new projects included Portsmouth Spinnaker Tower, Oxford Castle and The Real Mary King’s Close in Edinburgh.  The business flourishes to this day.

In 2008, Dominic sold his shares in Continuum, becoming the first Director General of the National Museum of the Royal Navy.  He was asked to create a new National Museum by merging the four existing naval museums: the Royal Naval Museum, The Fleet Air Arm Museum, the Royal Navy Submarine Museum and the Royal Marines Museum.  Dominic led the further rapid expansion of the museum, by means of twelve mergers and acquisitions including HMS Victory, HMS M33, HMS Warrior, and the Museum of Naval Firepower all in the Portsmouth area, as well as HMS Caroline in Belfast and HMS Trincomalee and the surrounding site in Hartlepool. The museum collections were transformed with the acquisition of six other major collections including a large part of the MoD Art Collection.  A particular coup was to raise £600,000 during COVID to purchase ten contemporary maps showing the whole the Armada campaign.  A new Collections Centre provided a home for most of these acquisitions.  To renew and transform its estate Dominic led the raising of some £180m including substantial endowments for HMS Victory and HMS Caroline.

Dominic has been a lecturer at Durham University, an Honorary lecturer at Bradford University, an Honorary Researcher at York University and an Honorary Professor at both the University of Portsmouth and University College London.  He has been a Council Member of the Royal School of Needlework, a Trustee of the Vale of Pickering Research Trust and the Mercantile Marine Memorial Collection, and Chairman of the Wellington Trust.  He is currently Chairman of the Maritime Archaeology Sea Trust.  In his spare time Dominic is writing two books: The Spanish Armada, Untold Stories and Petruccio Ubaldini, an Italian in the London of Elizabeth I.  He is hoping to write another best seller, his children’s book Growing Up in Viking Times having remained in print for thirty years!