THE North of England Lead Mining Museum has received £81,327 from Arts Council England.

The cash for the industrial museum in Weardale, County Durham – also known as Killhope – comes from a resilience fund established by the Arts Council specifically for museums.

Stockton Library and Heritage Service, in Stockton, receives £76,920 in the latest round of awards and Seven Stories, the national centre for children’s books, in Ouseburn, Newcastle, £93,050.

Sarah Maxfield, area director of Arts Council England North, said: “Our museums resilience fund supports museums by enabling them to become more sustainable and robust, whatever their size, and helping them to offer improved experiences for both audiences and artists.”

Meanwhile, a newly published report by Arts Council England into the economic impact of the museum sector found that it generates £2.64bn in income and employs more than 38,000 people.

The report gave the example of Beamish, the living museum of the North, based in Beamish, County Durham, which it said spent £2.35m in 2012/13 on goods and services, excluding staff costs.

About 70 per cent of this spending is deemed to be local, including trade with small firms and employing contractors.

The Arts Council said: “With continued support from local authorities, Department for Culture, Media and Sport and other public and private funders, museums can play an ever more important role in our economy and communities.”