page_title: Tresco Abbey Gardens
section_title: Valhalla Museum
hierarchical_section_title: Tresco Abbey Gardens / Valhalla Museum
caption_attribution_description: English: Valhalla, Tresco Abbey Gardens The Valhalla Museum, Tresco Abbey Gardens. The cannon is from the wreck of HMS Association which sank in 1707.
context_page_description: Tresco Abbey Gardens are located on the island of Tresco in the Isles of Scilly, United Kingdom. The 17 acre gardens were established by the nineteenth-century proprietor of the islands, Augustus Smith, originally as a private garden within the grounds of the home he designed and built. The gardens are designated at Grade I in the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.
context_section_description: The Valhalla Museum within Tresco Abbey Gardens features the Valhalla Collection containing some 30 figureheads, as well as name-boards and other decorative carvings from the days of sail. The collection was started by Augustus Smith. Most of the figureheads date from the middle and end of the 19th century and come from merchant sailing vessels or early steamships that were wrecked on the Isles of Scilly. Some of the ships which are represented in the collection are:
  a 17th-century stern decoration of the Greek god Boreas and possibly carved by Pierre Puget, is said to be from a French ship wrecked on Annet in that century.
  HMS Association - wrecked on the night of 22 October 1707 (Old style) in the Scilly naval disaster of 1707. The bronze cannon was salvaged from this wreck in 1970. It is a French 18-pounder bronze gun, probably a trophy from the siege of Toulon (1707). The main decoration shows the arms of France and Navarre surrounded by the collars of the orders of St Michel and the St Esprit, surmounted by a crown.
  SS Thames — wrecked 4 January 1841 near Gorregan and Rosevear.
  Alessandro II Grande — wrecked 1 January 1851 when she was blown on the Mare ledges, off the south shore of Tresco. There was no loss of life. The figurehead is of Tsar Alexander I.
  Mary Hay — wrecked 13 April 1852 after hitting the Steeple Rock, on the Bream Ledges which is between Mincarlo and Samson.
  Chieftain — said to be wrecked in 1856 off St Martin's Head. There is no record of a ship with that name in the Lloyd's Register
  Award — wrecked 19 March 1861 when she was driven onto Gweal during a force 8 to 9 NNW gale. Her crew of 24 managed to scramble ashore.
  Primos — wrecked 24 June 1871 on the Seven Stones reef.
  River Lune — wrecked 27 June 1879 on the Brothers Rock in Muncoy Neck, between Melledgan and Annet.
  Bernardo – sank on Annet in 1888. Her figurehead is said to be St Bernard of Clairvaux.
  Lofaro — wrecked 2 February 1902 struck Merrick Rock, St Martin's with the loss of her crew.
caption: Valhalla
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