See how Hartlepool's Heugh Battery Museum is using £500,000 Arts Council England money to preserve site for future
Work to preserve a historic Hartlepool site for future generations is progressing well.
The Heugh Battery Museum on the Headland is currently undergoing a near £500,000 revamp to make the site safer and more accessible to visitors.
Work led by heritage and conservation experts Xsite Architecture started in February and is on course to finish in August.
The museum, which was a former gun battery that defended the town including during the Bombardment of the Hartlepools in 1914, has now welcomed some special visitors.
Guests from other museums who are part of partnership Museum Development North heard about the renovation project in a tour of the site led by Xsite Architecture’s Tim Bailey.
Tim said of the work: “It’s fairly extensive, about half a million pound’s worth of work that is maintaining, refurbishing and replacing sections of the installation which have become damaged or decayed, mostly impacts of the marine environment.”
Large sections of the site have been closed while skilled cratfs people, including stonemasons, bricklayers and joiners, replace railings and carry out much-needed repairs to buildings like the magazine and battery command post.
The work is being funded by a donation of £497,534 from Arts Council England.
The museum is the only First World War battlefield in the UK and tells the story of the Bombardment as well as having a wide and varied collection of artillery and military memorabilia.
Manager Diane Stephens said they face a “constant battle” against damage such as rust and building cracks which causes flooding in parts of the site.
She said: “In the long term it will mean that the buildings will survive and visitors will still be able to come and enjoy walking around and being able to access all of the site.
"If things had continued as they were we would have had to close off parts of the site because it was becoming unstable.”
Xsite Architecture have carried out work at a host of historic sites across the North including Rievaulx Abbey, Belsay Hall and Dunstanburgh Castle.
Tim added: “Our heritage portfolio is quite extensive, but there’s nothing quite like the Heugh Battery."
Two indoor exhibitions and the museum’s Poppy Tea Rooms remain open during the restoration works.
The Heugh Battery Museum, at Moor Terrace, is open 10am to 4pm Friday to Monday.