Woodhorn Museum Archives & Country Park

To get a taste of Northumberland's mining heritage try a visit to Woodhorn Museum, Archive and Country Park, near Ashington.

Woodhorn is housed in a stunning new building, inspired by the monster cutting machines that were once used deep underground. The museum is full of interactive displays that give a flavour of pit life in the county.

You can take an emotional journey through Coal Town and learn about the life and loves, tears and tragedies of a proud mining community.

There's also a big screen show employing state-of-the-art computer simulations to ‘rebuild’ the Woodhorn Colliery and fly you back to its sweat inducing, bone crunching heyday.

You can also explore the colliery buildings, hum along to a brass band, see the colourful miners' banner and even design your own banner. There are regular visiting exhibitions that have included Cars of the Stars and Wallace and Gromit's Animated Adventures.

Woodhorn is also home to a large collection of paintings by the Ashington Group, now known as the Pitmen Painters.

If you want more history you can visit Woodhorn's archives which house everything from old maps and photographs to church records. Just the thing if you're researching that family tree.

Touch screens will show you how to get started if you want to delve into the past and Woodhorn's study centre welcomes visitors all year round.

There's also a cafe, shop, country park and a 40 acre lake to explore.

Woodhorn is a world class visitor attraction and research destination and is the place to come to discover the history of Northumberland and have a great family day out.

Woodhorn is a fascinating visitor attraction celebrating Northumberland. A stunning new building inspired by monster coal cutting machines that once worked underground, houses an emotive display about life in the local mining community, colourful miners’ banners, the treasures of the Northumberland archive including an entertaining interactive exhibition designed especially for first time visitors, and 3 galleries for touring exhibitions.

Woodhorn is home to the Ashington Group Collection, the main collection of paintings by the famous Pitmen Painters celebrated in the play of the same name by Billy Elliot writer, Lee Hall. See their work in a dedicated gallery.

The separate Workshop Galleries offers visitors some great, large scale exhibitions too. Past exhibitions have included Wallace & Gromit and famous cars of TV and film. Visitors can also explore the grade 2 listed colliery buildings, enjoy lunch in the cafe or wander around the country park in which it is all located. Free admission. (Occasionally some big exhibitions have charges.)