Hartlepool's Heugh Battery Museum reopens to visitors for first time since start of pandemic

The museum, which is the only First World War battlefield site in the UK, closed to the public in March last year.

While Covid restrictions on museums were lifted earlier this year, the site has remained closed while restoration work has been going to protect a number of exhibits.

Some of that work is still ongoing but visitors can once again look around the parade ground, barrack room and command post.

But work is still be carried out in the armoury and underground trench.

As a result, visitors are not currently being charged full admission but invited to pay what they decide.

Museum manager Diane Stephens said: “We thought it would be unfair to charge people full price when they weren’t getting the whole museum.

"People have been really nice and very generous. It’s really nice to see people back on site.”

Diane hopes the underground trench will be ready by September ready to receive school visits.

The museum was awarded £71,573 from the government’s Culture Recovery Fund last October and restoration work is being carried out by specialists from Group Industrial UK, of Middlesbrough.

In April, the site celebrated the opening of its new outdoor tea rooms and also held a free micro pop up exhibition of clippy mats in July.

The museum, in Moor Terrace on the Headland, and Poppy Tea Rooms are open 10am-4pm Friday to Monday.

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