How many Coal Mining Museums do we need? We have Big Pit, the National Coal Mining Museum, any others?
There's a mining heritage museum in Radstock, "Preserving the Social and Industrial Heritage of the Communities of the Former Somerset Coalfield"
http://radstockmuseum.co.uk/
Presumably because people do actually visit stately homes, but not coal mining museums......
But, there are many more stately homes than mining museums.
Posh piles get much more media coverage than mines, so there's an awareness issue. If the Antiques Roadshow or Bargain Hunt was filmed at a mining museum, more people would know of its existence and may choose to visit.
Personally, the only time I visit anything remotely stately is when I surreptitiously pass through its grounds on the way to an adit.
Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.