page_title: North of England Lead Mining Museum
section_title: Reconstruction
hierarchical_section_title: North of England Lead Mining Museum / Reconstruction
caption_attribution_description: English: Killhope Lead Mining Museum, now developed into a major museum site
context_page_description: The North of England Lead Mining Museum, also known as Killhope, is an industrial museum near the village of Cowshill, County Durham, England. The museum stands on the site of the former Park Level Mine, which is being restored to show the workings of a 19th-century lead mine.
context_section_description: By 1980, the Killhope Wheel was facing demolition, the washing floor had become a marshy field, and the rest of the site was decaying. In that year, the Durham County Council took over the site and began a programme of restoration. First to be restored was the "mineshop", which was opened to the public in May 1984. The Killhope Wheel was restored to working order in 1991 and the mine itself was opened in 1996.
  It had been hoped that the existing mine could be restored to allow access by the public, but though the Park Level was found to be generally in sound condition, and the first 100 metres has been used as an access route, the area in the vicinity of the first vein workings was badly collapsed and unsafe. Reconstruction therefore consisted of constructing a new 'artificial' mine within a chamber that was excavated from the surface. Within this artificial mine, the rock surfaces are actually fibreglass casts, taken not just from Killhope but also from mines in the Nenthead district in nearby Cumbria. Despite their artificial nature, the casts faithfully represent the appearance and texture of the real rock.
caption: The mine as it appeared in 1988
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