AMBITIOUS plans have been drawn up to enhance a rural town’s heritage centre and boost visitor numbers.
Last year the heritage centre at Bellingham in Northumberland attracted a record 4,000 visitors and has now committed itself to a target of 10,000 by the end of 2013.
This compares with 2007 when just 1,700 people visited.
The centre aims to meet the 2013 target by appointing two part-time consultants to develop the exhibitions and education programmes, provide extra exhibition and learning space and opening a tea room.
These developments, costing £234,000 over three years, are backed by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Northumberland Uplands LEADER Project.
The consultant posts are for a curator and an education officer to work with the existing team of more than 40 volunteers.
Extra exhibition, learning space and a tea room will be housed in two old railway carriages located beside the centre in Bellingham’s former station yard.
To encourage a new business start-up, the centre is providing the fully- equipped tea room rent-free for the first year.
The aim is to encourage visitors to spend more time in the local area which will provide a boost for local businesses.
The decision to use the old railway carriages came partly from the continuing interest in the centre’s Border Counties Railway collection and permanent display on the route’s Wannie Line.
Following an extensive search, two carriages were located in Oakhampton in Devon which will be transported to Bellingham by the end of March.
The work of refurbishing and fitting out the carriages will start in April and is expected to be completed by the end of October.
They will be painted in the maroon and cream livery of the defunct Border Counties Railway.
Heritage centre chairman Terry Bragg said: “A couple of generous local people have advanced us most of the money we need as interest-free loans to get the project started until the grants start to flow. We wish to acknowledge their generosity publicly. We are very pleased to be able to increase our contribution to the local economy.”
The centre’s current exhibition Eternal Horizons features artefacts, photographs and documents from churches in the area.
