AN MP has welcomed a funding boost for a museum which celebrates Cleveland’s mining heritage.
Cleveland Ironstone Mining Museum, in Skinningrove, has received £800,000 from the Coastal Community Fund Awards to improve and extend its facilities.
The cash will help create a walk-round interactive element to the museum, store more artefacts and create a classroom and performance space to be used by local school pupils.
It is hoped the funding will also enable the museum, which is run by volunteers, to open all year round.
Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland MP Tom Blenkinsop said: “It’s right that the museum gets the funds it needs to attract more visitors and provide a truly modern experience for those wanting to learn more about our area’s history.”
The museum, which is entirely run by volunteers, was founded by Tom Leonard, a local newspaper journalist who reported on the closure of ironstone mines in the 1950s and was determined that Cleveland’s mining past not be lost.
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