A LEGACY FORGED FROM BLOOD, SWEAT AND IRONSTONE
Discover the people and industry behind Britain's Land of Iron. East Cleveland was the powerhouse of the British Empire; producing, at its height, a third of all the iron and steel in the world. Now it is almost a forgotten industry and we, at the museum, work hard to commemorate its achievement and, more importantly, ensure the mining and steel communities don't forget their globally important heritage.
EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY WORK AT THE MUSEUM
We are not just a museum open to visitors, we are one of the most sought after educational schemes in the region interacting with over 2,000 school children every year along with a packed programme of family and adult events. We also work within the community running a successful work placement scheme for young people and older people looking to get back into the workplace. As the largest independent museum in East Cleveland we attract much needed tourism revenue into the region.
MAJOR DEVELOPMENT AT THE MUSEUM
Thanks to funding from the National Lottery, Coastal Communities Fund and Tees Valley Combined Authority we are embarking on an exciting expansion project, building a large extension onto the museum to house a walk round museum, two classrooms and modern archive storage for our collection.
WHAT WE NEED THE FUNDING FOR
In 2019 the Beast form the East caused the domed roof of our iconic upcast room to fall in, which led to 18 months of surveys and renovations of our mine buildings and tunnels. This has left us with the need to completely redevelop our immersive underground mining experience which was not included in the works already funded. We have raised around 25% of the £85,000 needed for iron sculptures which will represent the miners and horses that once worked our mine.
We are working with renown local blacksmith artist, Emma Stothard, as we want to support local creative talent, especially in these difficult Covid-19 times. What we hope to raise through crowdfunding is £15,000 to pay for a miner and bench where people can sit, outside the entrance to the underground tunnel, and have their photo taken.
We have very little time to raise this money as we want the whole museum, including the experience, to open at the same time; autumn 2022. To give the blacksmith artist time to build the sculptures we need to raise the money by March 2022.
Completing this project will help make Cleveland Ironstone Mining Museum a vibrant and entertaining place to preserve and commemorate our ironstone mining heritage and the people who made this Land of Iron.