Scale: 1:48. The ‘Castle class’ corvette was an improved version of the highly successful ‘Flower class’ designed by Smith’s Dock Company Ltd, of South Shields. The concept would remain the same: a simple design using mercantile machinery and equipment, and small enough to be built in yards not normally capable of being used for naval projects.

By 1942 the original small escort vessel design had been developed into the powerful ‘River class’ and ‘Loch class’ frigates, but these two larger escort designs threatened to waste the productive capacity of smaller shipyards, since their building slips could not accommodate the new frigate hulls. In order to overcome this, Smith’s Dock Company was asked to design an improved successor to the ‘Flower class’ escort vessels which incorporated the features of the ‘Loch class’ Although it was impossible to combine all the advantages of a frigate in a hull only three-quarters of the size, the result was a well-balanced design, of which the only major criticism was that the ships lacked real speed, just 16.5 knots. They were 252 feet in length and had a displacement of 1010 tons. In all thirty-nine were built. HMS ‘Berkeley Castle’ had a sudden and undignified end in 1953, while refitting at Sheerness dockyard. During the winter floods a caisson collapsed, allowing a wall of water to sweep into the basin and dry dock. She was hurled over and suffered heavy damage to her superstructure. She was never repaired, being later sold for scrap.

The model shows ‘Berkeley Castle’ in her Arctic camouflage, with hull and upperworks painted pale blue and off-white. Wartime constraints are apparent here only in the materials used, not in the quality of its construction. The original wood-framed case has been patinated to look like bronze and, on the model itself, deck fittings and equipment have almost entirely been painted rather than plated. These are small details and they don’t detract from our appreciation and enjoyment of the model. It still retains its original deeply figured and French-polished mahogany baseboard with builder’s information plaques, though the original pillar supports are now missing. We can see the stern chute for launching depth charges and there are two depth charge throwers forward of the chute. There are companion ladders stowed against the port and starboard hulls and there are some nice touches, like the partly grease-smeared anchor cables. The model was displayed for many years, in the ‘Battle of the Atlantic’ gallery, and latterly in the gallery ‘Seapower in the Twentieth Century’.