In May the Weardale Museum will be celebrating its 40th Anniversary and what better way to commence celebrations than to announce they have been awarded two substantial grants worth almost £750,000 which will enable contractors to complete the renovation of former High House Methodist Chapel and the Weardale Museum and create a home for the emerging flagship Methodist Tapestries Collection. Together with other generous grants the total value of works and developments they can undertake in this special anniversary year will be an amazing £850,000.
Trustee, Allan Percival, said, “At the start of the project we had budgeted £325,000 for restorations and a similar amount for repurposing to create the new Weardale Museum & Heritage Centre. Unbeknown at that time, the 260-year-old property had other ideas!” He continued, “Our three-year Development Plan commenced in 2019 and is now in year six! We’ve addressed several “Critical At Risk of Collapse” structural needs since Covid and in the process have reduced the interior of the chapel to a skeletal shell. These awards will facilitate the remaining urgent restorations of this historic, 1760, former Chapel, leading to the opening of a fivefold expanded new Weardale Museum & Heritage Centre. These investments make possible transformational developments for our rural museum."
