Big Pit enjoys most successful summer yet (From Free Press Series)

Big Pit enjoys most successful summer yet

BIG PIT mining museum is celebrating its most successful summer ever.

The museum attracted over 50,000 visitors in the three months June to August. That marks a 38 per cent increase on the same period last year.

The latest figures mark a remarkable turnaround for the attraction, which was once threatened with closure before it became part of National Museums and Galleries of Wales in 2001.

90,000 visitors have been to Big Pit since it was officially re-launched in April this year following a £7.2 million redevelopment. That included a new resource centre and workshops where visitors can watch restoration work taking place, new galleries and audio-visual presentations, new exhibition space and landscaping to take the pit back to the way it looked in the past.

A spokesman for the museum said: "These figures show the redevelopment work has paid off. Big Pit is now one of Wales' favourite tourist attractions. Visitors are coming from all over. We get lots of school trips from France as well as local, casual visitors on a day out."

Entry to the museum and underground tours is free. It is open seven days a week up to the end of November.

THE REGENERATION of Blaenavon is the subject of a day-long 'experience' planned in the town this month.

A series of talks, tours and presentations is planned for September 25.

The event, organized by policy research group the Institute of Welsh Affairs, costs £20 to attend.

It includes talks by Booktown boss James Hanna, regeneration project director John Rodger, poet Patrick Jones and writer Gillian Clarke.

Lunch at the Workmen's Hall, refreshments and a surface tour of Big Pit are also included.

A spokesman for the IWA said: "This is for anyone interested in Blaenavon and who wants to see it prosper.

"It's all about raising the profile of a once-depressed area which is regenerating."

Call 02920 666606 or email wales@iwa.org.uk for details of how to book a ticket.