' 111111111111111 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIllIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII111111111111111 THE RESTORATION OF LADY VICTORIA COLLIERYAS PART OF THE SCOTTISH MINING MUSEUM-----byColinMclean I propose here not to regale you The inevitable Community Progwith details of bonds and mortar ramme was started, placing us in mixes nor even to list the endless the dubious position of being the number of funding sources that we largest single employer in the have tapped in the restoration of village. After six years of the colliery. Instead, I intend to restoration work, the pithead was look at the question of heritage and opened to visitors. This was suppconservation as the panacea for all lemented by a visitor centre in the planning ills former colliery office, with interpWe must by now all be familiar retative displays and a licensed with the public-relations blurb that restaurant. accompanies every proposed It is at this point where one is industrial museum: environmental faced with the task of operating a improvements ... bringing life visitor facility, that the question of back to the village ... engendering priorities is brought into sharp focus. a new sense of community ... job A review of objectives was creations ... focus for new required, and four emerged. First, investment. I certainly will freely as the Scottish Mining Museum, we admit to using all of these (not have a reponsibilty for an everalways in the one sentence) at some growing collection; for its time in the past. Those of you who documentation and conservation. detect a note of cynicism, however, Secondly, as an educational estabshould bear with me. They were all lishment we have to develop and very real and sincere intentions, maintain educational programmes and in many cases have been at !eat for school groups and others. partly realised. Thirdly, as a visitor attraction we What I thought would be useful is must provide our visitors with to give an operator's viewpoint of exciting and interesting experiences the reality of managing an and a high standard of service. And industrial museum project; one fourthly, as an independent private whose roots lie very firmly in the (charitable) company, the books local planning system. A little of have to balance. the background will be useful. The restoration of the colliery is The decision to close Lady in itself not an individual priority, Victoria Colliery was taken in 1981, but falls into the area of collections by which time the nucleus of the care; it is no more than our largest Mining Museum had been formed artefact, though with its own very on a much earlier, but now largely special conservation requirements. cleared, colliery site thirteen miles A great deal has been done. away in East Lothian. Three acres of leaking roof have The opportunity to take over a been reduced to two. Buildings complete colliery complex was one have been stabilised and repainted. that had to be grasped, particularly Office, workshops and visitor as the colliery was B-grade listed facilities have been developed. This for its group value, and in part A- initial surge of development has grade and a scheduled ancient now come to a halt, and the monument. The surrounding village museum has to face the choice of Newtongrange, built by the between property restoration, Lothian Coal Company to house which could continue for decades, the workers imported for its new and the development of museum pit, had been declared a services. have to develop in a direction that makes commercial good sense, for our continuing survival will depend on economic viability. The public purse, in this case a consortium of three local authorities which provides our care funding, is not a bottomless one, and the inevitable annual increase in operating costs places greater pressure on the development budget. The museum therefore now has to seek a level of investment in a major facility that will attract a significant number of visitors, at a realistic ticket price, to generate sufficient revenue to subsidise our museum activities. Not surprisingly, this facility will be a simulated 'underground experience'. Other museums have developed real underground displays; some are new and apparently successful, some have proved less so in the long run. The Lady Victoria Colliery situation will not permit deep underground access, and I confess to a certain degree of relief in that. The simulation will allow me a design freedom that will ultimately benefit both visitors and our accounts. It is after all no more than a display. On top of these immediate concerns of a museums director, increasingly interested in cash flows and budget control, one frequently feels that one's project is also regarded as the aforementioned planning panacea. The intentions of all parties doubtless will be honourable, but the economics of any museum project are marginal, and to overload it with social objectives and responsibilities is quite simply unrealistic, when survival becomes the order of the day. conservation area. Together, the In my view, we have reached the Colin McLean is the Director of the colliery and its village formed a stage where our main focus has to Scottish Mining Museum, and classic combination of workplace turn from buildings to people. From formerly worked for East Lothian and home. a strictly economic viewpoint, we Planning Department. IIIIIllIIIIIIIIIIIIIll IIIIIIIIIIIIIllIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIllIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII II I IIIIIIIIllfilll IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII111111111111111 ' 20
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