Yesterday we welcomed Ben with his grandparents, as the first wheelchair user in our surface mine display based on a training gallery formerly used at Kellingley Colliery, the last deep coal mine in the UK. Our volunteers have done a great job in turning this into a great facility.
We acquired it a few years ago as a bare frame and erected it on site behind the mining cage which would become the entrance to the display. It has been enclosed and dressed with artefacts from our collection to look like a colliery roadway.
It’s a great addition to the site and amongst its uses is offering people who might not be able to do the underground tour, such as Ben, a taste of what it might be like to be in a coal mine.
Inside the surface gallery The very beginning of the project.
