A museum at the heart of the community has celebrated a major expansion at an official opening ceremony.
Golcar’s Colne Valley Museum volunteers and supporters were joined by Lord Lieutenant of West Yorkshire, Dr. Ingrid Roscoe, at the event on Wednesday, to unveil a plaque to mark the construction of a new entrance, shop and the Spring Rock tearoom.
After the unveiling, Dr Roscoe was presented with a bouquet of flowers and a selection of home made preserves from the museum’s shop.
The large scale renovation on the Cliffe Ash site was enabled thanks to a £12,000 donation from the Queens’ Jubilee Masonic Grant in June 2012.
The improvements mean that the museum is now easier to access for those with mobility problems and that visitors will be able to enjoy homemade treats on site.
Trustee Janet Jobber said: “The Museum volunteers were thrilled that Dr. Roscoe could come today and see our museum for herself. “She obviously enjoyed her visit and talked to many of our demonstrators, who were on hand to explain the traditional skills we are preserving in this amazing building.”
Volunteers are now working to put together a bid to the Heritage lottery Fund to enable the building to expand further to include a period bedroom and heritage resource centre.
Janet said: “We have a dedicated team of volunteers who are working to develop and improve the museum which is now in its 44th year.
“This project, Realising the Dream, will enable visitors to explore an entire 19th century weavers’ cottage.
“We intend to create a heritage resource centre as we get a significant number of visitors who are trying to trace their family roots, so providing a service for this is high on our list and we also plan to make most of our collection accessible online.”
The well discovered beneath the original doorway of the site will be a feature in future plans for the building.
For more information about the museum, visit: http://www.colnevalleymuseum.org.uk/
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