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Museum of mining needs new cash seam

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Published Date: 06 February 2007
By RHIANNON EDWARD
SCOTLAND'S national mining museum is under threat, because part of the ageing colliery in which it is based is in danger of collapsing.
The Scottish Mining Museum in Midlothian needs up to £2.5 million to shore up some of its buildings to ensure they do not become a safety risk.

The museum, the only one of its kind in Scotland, is based at the 115-year-old former Lady Victoria Co
lliery at Newtongrange.

A report by architects LDN has warned the board of trustees that without investment the museum will "almost inevitably close" within ten years.

It is hoped that funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and other sources can be found to secure its future.

The Scottish Mining Museum has a five-star excellence award from VisitScotland and receives about 40,000 visitors every year.

A similar cash crisis in 2000 was averted when the Scottish Executive pledged £600,000 to save the museum from closure.

Plans are being drawn up to try to find the £2.5 million needed, plus a further £1 million for improvements.

It is hoped that improving the facilities and marketing of the museum, which was established in 1984, will help to attract more visitors.

Fergus Waters, the director of the museum, said: "Coal mines weren't built to last forever, so we need to stabilise these buildings."



The full article contains 231 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 05 February 2007 9:36 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
  • Related Topics: Scottish museums
 
1

walter,

06/02/2007 00:50:41

Why not ask the ex (striking) miners and the union for the money, after all it was their actions that caused the end of the mining industry in this country.

2

Conan,

Here 06/02/2007 07:57:56

Best forgotten - until we come to realize we are sitting atop a 500+ to 2,000+ year supply of hydrocarbons. Waxing nostalgic about the place where my granddad was cut to pieces by a coal train isn't much fun.

3

iain,

edinburgh 06/02/2007 07:59:51

This is an utterly boring museum-who cares about it?

4

Jeeemy,

somewhere in scotland 06/02/2007 08:38:50

Aye Iain laddie! You must be ane oh the educated wans yea dina ken whar yiv been, and ye dina ken whar yer goin. N whits ah hent ye disna metter.
Loon yir jist a scuunner so ye are.

5

Billy Blogg,

06/02/2007 09:47:39

Iain, you sound surly and ungrateful. Please remember what coal did for the economy in it's time. Sorry perhaps I should ask you to research it, the contribution and sacrifice made by the men and women should not be forgotten.

6

robert.l,

Midlothian 06/02/2007 09:57:55

This industry should not be forgotten, for the good it did for the country as a whole and for the harsh reality of the early conditions men and boys had to endure.

7

Safetymannie,

Fife 06/02/2007 10:24:56

@#1 Walter.
So Thatcherite policies had nothing to do with the demise of the coal industry in Scotland?

8

Yada,

06/02/2007 10:39:14

#7 No, nothing! What destroyed the coal industry in the UK was Scargill thinking he was God. The miners took on Heath and won. 10 years later Scargill thought he could do the same thing. He hated Toryism (fair enough, so did a lot of people) and thought that he had a right to destroy an elected government which neither he nor anyone else has the right to do in a democracy except through the ballot box. His action was political; it wasn't supported even by his own people (which is why he refused a national ballot).
But he was also a political naif. If he'd bothered to study his enemy he would have known she was not about to let him humiliate her party and a Conservative government twice in 10 years.
He also forgot to take account of the growth in supply of North Sea gas and oil and he and the NUM priced coal out of the energy equation.
This country (and I mean the whole of the UK) is more prosperous now than we could have ever imagined in the 1980s mainly due to the reforms that Thatcher instituted then.
You don't have to have liked her (I don't) but Gordon Brown's success as Chancellor has been built on her legacy, like it or not.

9

Billy,

Germany 06/02/2007 11:36:45

Agree with both Walter and Yada. There are plenty of us who remember the misery caused by the miner's strikes. You know what they say about Scargill: "he began the strike with a big union and a small house, and ended it with a small union and a big house". He and the others who lined their pockets, while doing untold damage to the country can pick up the bill .

10

Scotscanuk,

06/02/2007 18:01:10

Surely the Museum is worth keeping open for the
way of life the miners had be kept alive. @.5 million is not a great amount in the scheme of lotteries etc.

11

drew1712,

bonnyrigg 06/02/2007 20:16:59

Shut the lady victoria,relocate the whole of newtongrange.Send them to roslin beside dolly.They could look for the code

12

american billy,

u,s,a 06/02/2007 22:14:27

I enjoy reading the Scotsman every day. i have added my comments, but the more i read the idiots and there comments. i have decided to no more add my comments. i do not want to be classed in the same catagory as these uneducated trash with nothing else to do with there time.


 

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