The Design
HSD’s masterplan to integrate the County Archives, Local Studies Collection, Colliery museum and historic building complex into a new visitor attraction won a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of £10million (Euro14.7million). The new Woodhorn experience uses five defined exhibition zones to add pace and character to the visit. All the existing buildings on the site now include interpretive information as well as abstract display forms inspired by the creative stories from each zone. Appropriate media, from large graphics to configurations using real objects, are used to interpret contentious and sensitive moments from local history. Tactile wayfinding devices and clear surface changes also make the site easy to navigate for the physically and visually impaired.

The Results
The museum was opened in October 2006 and saw its 10,000th visitor only seven days later. By June 2007 it had welcomed 82,297 visitors and is now set to attract more than 150,000 in its first twelve months, against a target of 75,000. Visitor profiles now include families, where the old museum had struggled to attract the under 55s. Group tours have brought 1,078 non-educational visitors to the site and 95 private functions have been booked since November 2006. The previous archive sites, which used to attract 207 visitors a month, are now integrated into a combined study centre which attracts an average of 862 visitors per month and 3,800 people have registered to use the archive facility.

Bronze Museums, Galleries and Visitor Attractions