Scale: 1:48. A contemporary full hull model of the ‘Winchelsea’ (circa 1764) a frigate of 32 guns. The model is partially decked, fully planked on the starboard side, with exposed frames on the port side.

This model is one of several commissioned by Lord Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty, to encourage George III’s and the Prince of Wales’s interest in the navy. Not surprisingly for a royal commission, the workmanship is of the highest standard. Because of the high profile of the project, it has been possible to establish by research through the state papers and Admiralty records that a Mr Burrough was paid for the ‘carved work’, and that the model was built at Woolwich Dockyard.

J. Williams built the ‘Winchelsea’ at Sheerness to the designs of Sir Thomas Slade, who also designed Nelson’s ‘Victory’. It measured 125 feet along the gun deck by 35 feet in the beam and was 680 tons burden. After a fairly quiet career in the Mediterranean, West Indies and Newfoundland, the ‘Winchelsea’ became a convalescent ship at Chatham in 1803, before being sold in 1815.