The JOHN LETHBRIDGE 250 Exhibition - was opened on the 10th March 2009 by International diver and Marine Archaeologist, Robert Stenuit and the Mayor of Newton Abbot, Councillor Corney-Walker. John Lethbridge invented a diving machine, testing it in his garden in Newton Abbot, at the very hour of the eclipse in 1715! He went on to work as a salvage man-'wrackman' for the Dutch East India Company, and is known all over the world. This year is his 250th anniversary, and the museum is honouring him in style. Robert Stenuit (Director of the Groupe de Recherche Archeologique Sous-Marine post medieval of Brussels) kindly agreed to open the exhibition because of his great admiration for the skills and courage of John Lethbridge. Stenuit knows more than most how Lethbridge worked, as in 1977, he dived in a full-sized replica of Lethbridge's 'diving-engine' in a testing tank. Stenuit followed in Lethbridge's footsteps, diving on the 'Slot ter Hooge' a shipwrecked East India man, and was filmed by the BBC. The artefacts left behind by Lethbridge during his salvage attempt in 1724 have been loaned to the museum by Stenuit for the exhibition. The BBC filmed in the museum and Newton Abbot,to illustrate the amazing adventures of John Lethbridge who lived in Newton Abbot during the 1700s. Robert Stenuit travelled to Newton Abbot to share his enthusiasm and great knowledge on John Lethbridge. He is pictured (above) with Marc Horton, marine archaeologist and BBC presenter in the workshop of Nick Hunt, who, together with his son have made the full-sized replica for the exhibition. Pictured left are local community actors ready to perform in a short re-enactment of Lethbridge's first experiment. The 'Inside Out' programme on the exploits of John Lethbridge was screened the week before the exhibition opened.

Robert Stenuit pictured (right) with past Mayor Cllr. David  Corney-Walker on the official opening of the museum exhibition on 9th March 2009.  The John Lethbridge exhibition is still available for those who were unable to view it last year

1675 - 1759 Life in Newton Abbot

John Lethbridge- 1675-1759
John Lethbridge, a local wool merchant, lived in Wolborough Street, Newton Abbot. Little is known of his childhood, but as from at the age of forty, John Lethbridge soon came to the notice of the London-based Shipping Companies: the English East India Company, Verenigde Oostindishche Companie (VOC) , the symbol for the Dutch United East India company, and the diving fraternity. He was to be known as the English man from Devon who invented a unique type of 'diving engine'. Lethbridge’s improved engine differed greatly from the traditional diving bell and other diving apparatus. His invention offered greater under water mobility and better working conditions for the 'fisher' (diver) thus proving more successful when retrieving 'treasures' and lost cargo from the sunken ship wrecks on behalf of the various shipping companies Over the next thirty years Lethbridge was to prosper. So successful, he rose from an unsuccessful wool merchant, struggeling to support his family, to, eventually, a man of wealth, owning the estate of Odicknoll in Kingskerswell.		Above: An engraving from a silver tankard, believed to be lost,showing John Lethbridge being lowered over the side of boat. Below: French drawing, 1906

John Lethbridge Trailer