I know... but its a great museum and the staff love their jobs and enjoy telling you the full story without dumbing down. Please bare in mind I used to be a model builder so I go for detail, couple this to my love of industrial architecture (mainly rail/mine related) and you tend to go abit mad when presented with a place as interesting as Newtongrange, the Architecture of the original brick built structures there is a wonderful survivor, I loved the character of the pit, a complete contrast to both Blaenavon and Caphouse, its nice we have 3 such wonderfully different sites to look at. Once it was realised I was a real enthusiast as against a tourist I was given a safety brief and signed in and pretty much given the run... sometimes guided othertimes not.. hence how I got the boiler shots, workshop shots, and close up shots at the pithead... I also got a private run up of the winder..Fabulous bit of kit. They are a great bunch and will let you go as far as they reasonably believe you will be safe (totecters being well looked upon). If you do go just ask to see stuff and they will soon help you out if they can spare someone to look after you so get their early. I had about 4 hrs and i felt i had rushed.... its just a great museum and whilst there is a charge its worth every penny. They are aiming to sort the boiler house out next. The screens area is also very interesting as this often lost element of pits has been beautifully conserved. :thumbsup:
An interesting place is the large exhibits shop in the former workshops (only officially open 2 days a week)... lots of interesting toys in there including a coal cutter recovered from old workings during opencasting.. there was just tons to see, I was luckily escorted around it by the mines former NCB surveyor. There were also locomotives, a dismantled winder, lots of supports, cutters etc etc.
Problem is everywhere you look there is something to see!! 🙂
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh Creeper!!!!!