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Coal, Canaries and 30th Birthday Cake

December 2014

One of Scotland's best loved visitor attractions is celebrating its 30th birthday with a special free exhibition guaranteed to fascinate and delight visitors.

The 30th anniversary celebrations of National Mining Museum Scotland look back on three successful decades, during which it has both preserved some of Scotland's most precious and fragile industrial heritage and turned itself into a thriving visitor attraction that Scots voted their most cherished place.

The centrepiece of the celebration is a special exhibition: "Coal, Canaries and Cake: 30 Years of National Mining Museum Scotland". The exhibition opened to the public on Saturday 21st November and is free to enter.

Housed in the restored Lady Victoria Colliery, the museum was opened on a modest scale in 1984 and has been lovingly transformed by staff and volunteers into one of Scotland's top visitor attractions.

Built in the 1890s by the Lothian Coal Company, and served by one of Europe's biggest purpose-built mining villages, the 'Lady' was Scotland's first "super pit" and regarded as a showpiece of engineering. It was an active working colliery until 1981 and remained a central site of the Lothians coalfield, even as newer, bigger and more technically advanced pits opened around it. Across nearly a century of operation it consistently produced a high output of coal.

In the process, it became a much-loved Midlothian landmark, prized for its elegant industrial architecture and the lively history it encapsulated. Since its closure, the National Mining Museum of Scotland Trust has cared for the buildings and progressively brought them backinto use as a home for both permanent and temporary exhibits showcasing the priceless heritage of Scotland's mining industry and communities.

Ellie Swinbank, Keeper said: "The exhibition focuses on the museum's community, including its own staff, volunteers and visitors. Sections of the text have been written by different members of our team and the objects on display have been chosen by them too. Rather than a curatorial selection of what we feel is important to tell and show people, the exhibition really represents what the museum means to those who have been involved with it, and hopefully what it means to the wider community as well".

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