Mining museums look to the future - Museums Association

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Mining museums look to the future

The closure of the UK’s last deep-coal mine will necessitate a rethink of the role of mining museums and how they can remain relevant to visitors
The National Coal Mining Museum for England, in Wakefield, made a significant acquisition at the end of last year: the final tonne of coal produced by Kellingley Colliery in West Yorkshire, the last working deep-coal mine in the UK, which closed on 18 December.

The coal will go on public display early this year “as a lasting reminder of deep-coal mining in Britain”, says Andy Smith, the acting director at the museum (Smith has since been replaced by Mike Benson, who has moved from Bede’s World in Jarrow).

But the closure of Kellingley Colliery has prompted a rethink of the role of mining museums, and how they remain relevant.

“There is no doubt that, at a time when the last UK mine has closed, the role of mining museums will change,” says Estelle Morris, the chairwoman of the National Coal Mining Museum for England from 2007-2012. “While mining was a live industry, museums told the story of the past and present.”

Coal is not as important to the UK energy industry as it once was, but the debate about how we secure our energy will continue to be one of society’s most pressing issues. “The place of coal in that history is important to understand if we are to find good alternatives for our future needs,” says Morris.

Delicate issues

Ellie Swinbank, the keeper at the National Mining Museum Scotland, in Midlothian, agrees that mining museums must play a role in educating the public about energy, although they must also tackle delicate issues.

“The politics surrounding the industry, and particularly its decline, are still influential, and the sensitivities about the closure of the pits are still raw, as communities reconsider their roles and identities in a post-industrial Britain,” Swinbank says.

Ceri Thompson, the curator (public history) at the Big Pit National Coal Museum in Blaenafon, part of Amgueddfa Cymru (National Museum Wales), says visitor figures remain steady at about 150,000 annually, proof that the heritage site, with its preserved colliery surface buildings and underground workings, is still important.

“It is remarkable that we attract such crowds, as we’re not a blockbusting museum,” he says. “But people still realise the huge historical legacy associated with the mining communities and appreciate the fact that most Big Pit staff worked in the coal industry or have close links.”

Free admission, which was introduced in 2001 when Big Pit joined National Museum Wales, has boosted attendance, while education and outreach work remain a priority. The museum’s total revenue budget for 2015-16 is £1.66m.

“We were doing outreach work before it was called outreach,” says Thompson, adding that the museum works closely with the Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation, which cares for ex-miners and their families.

Swinbank also says that outreach work is vital: “Our outreach department has done a lot of work creating an amazing loans service for older people, particularly those living with dementia, and their carers. This has put objects back into the hands of those who made and used them.”

The National Mining Museum Scotland received £410,000 from the Scottish government for 2015-16, compared with £370,000 in 2014-15. But securing funds for educational resources can be difficult, says Nick Winterbotham, the former chairman of the Group for Education in Museums.

“Any industrial site has to keep a number of plates spinning, such as employing learning and access officers when the bulk of funds are needed to do almost everything but,” he adds. “There are 20% fewer educators in museums than five years ago, thanks to spending cuts.”

Facing challenges

The maintenance of sites and machinery is another challenge, says Winterbotham, as is “staying live and relevant to changing audiences that progressively have no experience of the industry or even the need for it”.

Financial problems have forced the Haig Pit Mining and Colliery Museum, in Whitehaven, to close less than a year after it reopened following a major revamp.

Rowan Brown, a former director of the National Mining Museum Scotland and now the director of the Alfred Gillett Trust, says industrial sites are expensive to run. “Funding can be challenging because of their political context, but these sites were intended to form the heart of their communities and they still can and should today,” she says.

“Mining transformed the UK socially, economically and environmentally, at enormous human cost, and many of us are the products of mining ancestry.”


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