Historic mining museum to reopen to public

A historic museum on the site of a former coalmine is set to reopen later this year after being bought by a miner's son.

Haig Colliery Mining Museum in Kells, Whitehaven, closed in 2016 amid financial difficulties and has been empty ever since.

The site was purchased in February by Mike Johnson, Conservative councillor for Thursby ward, who said parts of the site needed to be renovated.

Johnson said a cafe will open at the site later this month, and that he wanted "feedback from the community" to explore new uses for the building.

"I love history and I'm Cumbrian born and bred," he said.

"My father worked in open cast mining here in west Cumbria, so I think it's really important to retain our heritage and ensure the children of today understand what our forefathers did to get us where we are today."

Haig Colliery was operational from 1916 to 1986 and is the site of Cumbria's last deep coal mine, producing general purpose coal which was used in the iron and gas industry and for domestic fires.

The site was converted into a volunteer-run museum in 1997 and became a scheduled monument in 1998.

One of the two steam engines within the engine halls was returned to working order and artefacts of the area's coal mining heritage were on display.

The museum closed under insolvency measures.

Johnson says future plans for the site will take into account past challenges and it will be developed in line with community needs.

"History tells us it wasn't self-sustaining as a museum, so it needs to be a multi-use building," he said.

"That's where I need feedback from the community, to understand what they would like to see from it.

"Whether it's an event space, some office space, a community group space - there are so many different ideas the building lends itself too."

The first phase of the reopening is due to take place later this month, although more significant refurbishment is needed in parts of the site, Johnson said.

"The old cafe building that was part of the development in 2014, that's going to open mid-March," he said.

"The colliery building is going to be a bit more of a project over the next few years though.

"There's some significant damage that needs repairing and water ingress.

"There's been some pigeons living there rent-free, so we need to evict those - and then we can to start bringing the building back into shape."

Johnson said exhibits from the former museum would be part of the project.

"Part of my purchase was all the museum artefacts, so the collection will be available for display once I get it up and running.

"Once we've got the cafe up and running we'll have a few drop-in sessions for locals to come in and discuss what they'd like to see."

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