Published Date:
26 September 2008
SCOTLAND'S so-called "noisiest" museum clanks and rattles back into life today after a £10.5 million overhaul.
Attractions like the country's only working trams have been joined by new exhibits such as a giant pit winding engine and 30ft-high virtual reality blast furnace at the Museum of Scottish Industrial Life, following its two-year closure.
The free-admission museum at Summerlee, in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, won a £4.8 million Heritage Lottery Fund grant to refurbish and extend its exhibition hall, matched with council and other cash.
Carol Ettershank, the museum manager, said: "We have transformed a dark and freezing cold building into a warm, bright and welcoming space."
The hall's new centrepiece, among a host of working machinery, is the huge winding wheel from the Cardowan colliery in nearby Stepps.
A two-storey glass pavilion offers views of the remains of the Summerlee ironworks, which provided the inspiration for the museum's creation in 1987.
Trips on the site's 500-yard tram line will also resume, with a 1904 Lanarkshire tram due to be joined by a 1937 Coronation tram from Glasgow after restoration.
The full article contains 193 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
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Last Updated:
25 September 2008 9:52 PM
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Source:
The Scotsman
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Location:
Edinburgh
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Related Topics:
Scottish museums
