5th January 2006
The Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded a £1.535 Million grant to the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley towards the reconstruction of the Cradley Heath Worker's Institute which was rescued from the route of a bypass last year.
The Worker's Institute, which will be the second largest building in the Museum, was originally built following the 1910 Women Chainmaker's Strike and on its new site will finally achieve its original vision as being a 'centre of social activity, education and entertainment of working people and their families.
The Worker's Institute, to be reconstructed overlooking the Museum's canalside village, will be the first of a number of buildings planned to create a new High Street which will expand the Museum and attract more visitors to the Black Country.
The Institute will be fitted out as it would have been in the 1930's with original period displays and, what is a new departure for the Museum, a multi-media time-capsule room. Here will be told one of the most significant yet hidden stories of British labour history: the Women Chainmaker's strike and the story of its leader Mary Macarthur. She became one of Britain's leading female trade unionists, whose landmark victory laid the legislative foundation upon which today’s national minimum wage is built.
Reconstruction work will start in the spring and take about a year to complete, hopefully officially opening for International Women's Day on 8 March 2007. When rebuilt at the Museum the Institute will provide a fascinating attraction to the 250,000 people or more who visit the Museum each year.
Quote from Sylvia Heal, JP, MP and Deputy Speaker: “The project shows the important part that Mary Macarthur and the women chain makers in Cradley Heath played in tackling the issue of low pay.
”I am delighted that at last the sacrifice and determination of these women is being recognised, because they have an important place in the history of the Trade Union and Labour Movement”.
Quote from Kathleen Howe, Museum Curator and Development Manager: "The reconstruction of the Workers' Institute at the Museum ensures not just the preservation of a significant piece of our industrial heritage but stands as testimony to the Cradley Heath women chainmakers achievements bringing the story of Black Country working women to the forefront of the Museum's interpretation."