National Coal Mining Museum for England
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The National Coal Mining Museum for England (an Anchor Point of ERIH, The European Route of Industrial Heritage) is based on the site of the old Caphouse Colliery. This mine was worked from at least 1789 until the seam was exhausted in 1985 following the UK Miners' Strike (1984-1985) and work was started to convert it into a museum. The men were transferred to Denby Grange Colliery, Overton, Wakefield.
Opening in 1988 as the Yorkshire Mining Museum, it was granted national status in 1995.
The museum offers guided underground tours where visitors can see the conditions miners worked in and the tools and machines they used as the industry and the mine developed through the years. The extensive archive contains old issues of "Coal News" and details of collieries throughout England.
Above ground there is a well resourced visitor centre including exhibitions on the social and industrial history of the mines, meet former working pit ponies, ride the paddy train, follow the nature trail, or play in the adventure playground.
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[edit] Location
The museum is located on the A642, near Overton half way between Wakefield and Huddersfield in West Yorkshire, England. It is near the M1 motorway and is signposted from there. Adverts for the museum tend to always refer to it as being in Wakefield and may give a misleading impression as the museum is six miles west of Wakefield. The signs from junction 40 of the M1 unnecessarily take the motorist through Wakefield's Lupset estate to get to the museum, when it would be much quicker to go by way of Ossett.
Traffic approaching from south Manchester is advised to avoid going through the middle of Huddersfield.
[edit] Trivia
In 2006, Caphouse Colliery appeared in an advertising campaign for Pot Noodle, purporting to be a Noodle Mine in South Wales.
[edit] Other museums in mines and quarries
There are several other museums and visitor attractions that have been created from former industrial sites like this.
- The Eden Project was built in a former China clay quarry in Cornwall.
- The Museum of Lead Mining in Wanlockhead on the B797 between Mennock (A76) and Abington (A702 @ Junc 13 M74) Scotland [1]
- The Tom Leonard Mining Museum based in an ironstone mine in Cleveland [2]
