Martyn Heighton
Expert in maritime conservation who guided National Historic Ships to prosperity
MARTYN HEIGHTON, who has died aged 69, was the mainstay of the maritime heritage community and chairman of National Historic Ships (NHS), the organisation set up by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to encourage the awareness and preservation of historic vessels in Britain.
Heighton, who had a wealth of experience in maritime museums, was appointed director of NHS in 2007 and his dynamic leadership it grew from strength to strength.
He turned NHS’s tiny budget into a source of strength, becoming expert at persuading the Heritage Lottery Fund to make grants, started an annual photography competition and created the Shipshape Network, which brought together shipowners, craftsmen, businesses, heritage organisations, training bodies and all those with an interest in ship preservation.
Under Heighton, NHS annually expanded the ships register to include every historic ship, whether sailing or rotten, and introduced new categories including the national historic fleet. He sought and won a rare approval for a red ensign for the ships on the NHS register, and opened an annual competition which rewarded attendance at regattas and festivals with a £1,000 in cash.
His proudest achievement, however, was a beautifully illustrated guide, Conserving Historic Vessels (2010), which has become an international textbook for best practice in the care and restoration of old ships and boats.
Martyn John Heighton was born on February 28 1947 in Leicester and educated at the local grammar school before reading History at St John’s College, Cambridge, after which he was awarded a diploma in Education at Leeds University.
Though he had fallen in love with ships aged six, on a visit to HMS
Victory, he began a teaching career at Harrogate Grammar School before switching to a career in museums, working first for the Oxfordshire Museum Service. There he showed his flair for matters physical and practical by creating a portable castle from polystyrene blocks which could be reconfigured to make any castle and was used as a teaching aid. His last appointment was at the Cogges Farm Manor living museum at Witney, where his talent was appreciated by Sir Richard Foster who, when he left Oxfordshire museums to head Liverpool Museum, offered Heighton the chance to establish a maritime museum on the Mersey.
In the early 1980s Foster’s vision and Heighton’s hard work led to the foundation of the Merseyside Maritime Museum and helped to regenerate the Albert Dock in Liverpool. When the museum opened in 1986 it invited controversy with Britain’s first gallery to tackle slavery, and it was the first national museum to be established outside London.
Next Heighton moved to Bristol as director of the city’s museum and of Colston Hall, Bristol’s centre of music. His role soon developed into director of arts and leisure, and it was his inspiration and energy which raised the funds to build, between 1994 and 1996, a replica of the ship Matthew. He also organised the first International Festival of the Sea in 1996, and waved the Matthew off when in 1997 she left Bristol for Newfoundland to mark the 500th anniversary of John Cabot’s crossing of the Atlantic.
In 1998 Heighton also began his long association, as director and then trustee, with SS Great Britain which without his interest, professionalism and growing gift for fundraising was in danger of corroding away.
Heighton’s next challenge was (1997-2001) as chief executive officer of the Mary Rose and when DCMS introduced a scheme of designated museums, he ensured that the Mary
Rose was in the first tranche of museums to be recognised.
From Mary Rose he was headhunted by the National Trust, where he managed a portfolio which covered National Trust holdings in Wales and Western England. Heighton lobbied successfully for a large, lastminute donation which ensured that Tyntesfield in Somerset, former home to the Gibbs family who had owned the SS Great Britain, could be saved.
He also chaired a national programme to celebrate “Sea Britain 2005” and championed events commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Brunel.
Heighton was trustee and later chairman of the technical committee which advised on the preservation of HMS Victory, a trustee of HMS
Caroline in Belfast and a member of the Cutty Sark Advisory Committee; he served on the council of the Society for Nautical Research and was a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights.
An inspirational leader who combined his hands-on approach to any problem with a gift for finding his way through the Byzantine complexities of trusts, charities, and quangos, Heighton raised £150 million for the causes which he espoused. He did so through an ever-expanding network of friendships, not least in the museum and historic ships communities. He was always a calm but passionate professional, but above all a gentle, warm man who had time for everybody and an infectious and bounding sense of humour.
He married Evelyn Cutting in 1971. She survives him with their two sons.
Martyn Heighton, born February 28 1947, died November 7 2016