It has been revealed that the Crich Tramway Village have been successful in their application for funding to restore the Stone Workshop into a new Exhibition and Learning Centre from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). This means £917,500 has been earmarked for the scheme, although final plans have to be produced and presented to the HLF for approval for the majority of the cash to be released.
The Stone Workshop was built in 1841 by George Stephenson as a smithy and wagon works for the metre gauge railway at the site which served the Crich Cliff Quarry – the site of the National Tramway Museum. The building is part of the street scene at the Town End (next to the main shop) but the roof is in danger of collapse because of a fault in the original design.
The plan now is to preserve and restore the building and in the process create a new Exhibition and Learning Centre. This will focus on the social changes that took place during the British Industrial Revolution and the impact they had of developing public transport. The education centre will enable visitors to view the Museum’s photographic archive with new equipment and facilities included.
Glyn Wilton, Curator of the Museum, said: “This is a marvellous opportunity for the Museum to create a new learning centre for schools and extend our visitor facilities for all our visitors with a new exhibition gallery. The Lottery grant is vital to us to keep developing the Museum for our visitors. The work should start next year which is the 50th anniversary of the Museum and be opened in 2010 which is the 150th anniversary of the first street tramway in Britain [at Birkenhead which opened August 1860]; it couldn’t be better timing, we can celebrate for two years!”
Source: Crich Tramway Village