£100,000 EUROPEAN UNION GRANT ACCELERATES OPENING OF NEW PURBECK BALL CLAY MINE MUSEUM NEAR CORFE CASTLE

News Item and Press Release from Andrew P.M. Wright - 17th August 2010
Official photographer & press officer, Swanage Railway.
Photographs are copyright Andrew P.M. Wright.
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Chairman of the Purbeck Mineral and Mining Museum Group (PMMMG), Peter Sills (foreground, second left), with Sarah Watson, Director of Programme at Chalk and Cheese and volunteers inside the museum building next to the Swanage Railway's award-winning Norden 'park and ride' station and car park just north of Corfe Castle. Photo Andrew P.M. Wright

Volunteers rebuilding an historic ball clay mine near Corfe Castle - the centre piece of a new museum celebrating two thousand years of ball clay extraction in the Isle of Purbeck - have won a £100,000 grant from the European Union.

The money from the Dorset-based Chalk & Cheese rural re-generation fund to the Purbeck Mineral and Mining Museum Group (PMMMG) means the first phase of the Purbeck Mineral and Mining Museum is on target to open to the public during the summer of 2011.

Purbeck Mineral and Mining Museum Group (PMMMG) volunteers at work outside the museum building work on the latest addition to the structure next to the Swanage Railway's award-winning Norden 'park and ride' station and car park just north of Corfe Castle. Photo Andrew P.M. Wright

The new ball clay mine museum - the only dedicated working museum to ball clay mining's two thousand years history in the Isle of Purbeck - is located next to the Swanage Railway's award-winning Norden 'park and ride' station and car park just north of Corfe Castle.

Volunteers from the Purbeck Mineral and Mining Museum Group (PMMMG) have been working on the project since 2003 and have matched the £100,000 Chalk & Cheese grant with £50,000 worth of money and labour.

Work by the Group's volunteers has involved the dismantling of a ball clay mine building near Norden Farm - in the lea of the Purbeck Hills - and its re-erection some half mile away at the 20 acre Norden 'park and ride' station site.

Re-creating a working industrial environment, Purbeck Mineral and Mining Museum Group volunteers have just started work on the mining museum's tunnel which will give visitors the experience of what it was like to mine ball clay underground.

Purbeck Mineral and Mining Museum Group (PMMMG) volunteers at work outside the museum building work on the latest addition to the structure next to the Swanage Railway's award-winning Norden 'park and ride' station and car park just north of Corfe Castle. Photo Andrew P.M. Wright

Purbeck Mineral and Mining Museum Group chairman Peter Sills said: "We're delighted at winning this vitally important grant which will accelerate the first stage opening of the ball clay mine to the public next year.

"This is a major vote of confidence from the Chalk & Cheese rural re-generation fund in our work to preserve and explain Purbeck's important industrial heritage.

"The grant will kick start and fast track the opening of the mine to the public and enable us to achieve in 18 months what it would have taken us six to eight years to achieve. We hope to fully open the ball clay mine museum to the public during 2012.

"The ball clay mine museum will offer an important and rich social history experience to visitors - both holidaymakers and local people - and be an important educational resource for schools not just in Purbeck but across Dorset and countrywide.

"We're delighted that all the work put in over the last seven years by a small but very dedicated and determined team of volunteers has been recognised," explained Mr Sills who lives in Wareham.

Peter Sills, Chairman of the Purbeck Mineral and Mining Museum Group (PMMMG), with Sarah Watson, Director of Programme at Chalk and Cheese inside the museum building next to the Swanage Railway's award-winning Norden 'park and ride' station and car park just north of Corfe Castle. Photo Andrew P.M. Wright

Chalk & Cheese Director of Programme, Sarah Watson said: "We're delighted to make this funding award to the very worthwhile Purbeck Mineral and Mining Museum during such a critical time in the project's development.

"This is the first grant we have awarded in the Isle of Purbeck and the PMMMG is the principle museum explaining and celebrating the important contribution ball clay mining made to Purbeck's rural economy across more than two thousand years.

"The decision to give the Purbeck Mineral and Mining Museum Group the £100,000 grant was initially made at a meeting of our local area group members held in the restored ball clay mine building - and was finally endorsed by our executive committee " she added.

Purbeck Mineral and Mining Museum Group (PMMMG) volunteers at work outside the museum building work on the latest addition to the structure next to the Swanage Railway's award-winning Norden 'park and ride' station and car park just north of Corfe Castle. Photo Andrew P.M. Wright

Peter Sills explained: "We have completed work on rebuilding the mine building and the £100,000 grant from Chalk & Cheese will enable us to complete the mine tunnel and sections of the narrow gauge industrial railway over the next 18 months which will extend for up to a mile when ultimately completed.

"I would like to acknowledge the invaluable help of Imerys - which currently recovers Purbeck ball clay from quarries rather than mines - as well as the support and goodwill from Purbeck businesses which have helped with providing services, equipment and materials to the mining museum project.

"Purbeck's ball clay mines were the area's first ever industrial estates. The Romans started mining ball clay at Norden and Creech two thousand years ago with Purbeck's last clay mines closing some ten years ago.

"Being used in the manufacture of ceramics, Purbeck ball clay is now won via quarries in the Creech and Trigon areas near Wareham rather than via underground mines," explained Mr Sills who is also the volunteer chairman of the Swanage Railway Company.

Peter Sills, Chairman of the Purbeck Mineral and Mining Museum Group (PMMMG), makes a fine adjustment to the tunnel structure being built next to the museum building. Photo Andrew P.M. Wright

The Purbeck Mineral and Mining Museum Group (PMMMG) was formed during 2000 - as the last remnants of ball clay mining in Purbeck were disappearing - and is a sub-group of the Swanage Railway Trust (SRT) with many of the PMMMG's active members also being active members of the SRT.

Since 2000, the Group has raised some £45,000 to pay for its mineral and mining museum work. With more than 100 supporters, the Purbeck Mineral and Mining Museum Group holds weekly working parties at Norden on Sundays attracting up to 15 people.

The Purbeck Mineral and Mining Museum Group always welcomes new members - either armchair or working on building and developing the ball clay museum. For details of how you can help, visit www.pmmmg.org, visit the museum next to the Swanage Railway's Norden 'park and ride' car park on Sundays 10am to 5pm or email Peter Sills at peter.sills@swanage-railway.co.uk.

To see the complete selection of photos from Andrew P.M. Wright showing Purbeck Mineral and Mining Museum Group (PMMMG) volunteers at work on the museum, please scroll down the page.