Heritage Centre appeal close to its £50,000 target An amazing £45,000 is raised in just four months
A GENEROUS public repsonse has seen £45,000 of the £50,000 needed for Mountsorrel And Rothley Community Heritage Centre’s railway museum extension raised in just four months
The appeal was launched in October and Heritage Centre managing director Steve Cramp said: “It has been wonderful to see how the community has come together to raise money to help improve the Heritage Centre Site.
“It really is exciting to see how many people are interested in learning about their local history.
“The appeal has reached the point where work can get underway and over this past week the steel extension has been erected!”
The popular railway museum at the heritage centre site focuses on the railway history of Leicestershire, but the centre says that the display space is limited with the current facilities and restoration activities negatively impact the exhibits on display.
The £50,000 project to extend the museum is intended to address all of those problems and allow higher profile locomotives and other railway vehicles to be displayed.
Steve added: “We are so close to our target. Although the extension is up, we can’t move on with fitting out and completion until the final £5,000 is raised.”
The development of the Mountsorrel and Rothley Community Heritage Centre began 11 years ago with the restoration of the Mountsorrel Railway line.
With £100,000 raised from the local community and help from local businesses and over 300 volunteers, the Mountsorrel Railway was completed in 2015.
Volunteers have contributed over 140,000 hours of volunteer labour, they restored the rail line, built Mountsorrel Station with car park and access, repaired two stone bridges and then went on to create the Mountsorrel And Rothley Community Heritage Centre and all the many areas of interest that the Heritage Centre site now contains.
Since the Heritage Centre opened in April 2016 the site has continued to grow.
Further details of how to donate and more information on the project can be found at the Heritage Centre website http://heritage-centre. co. uk/ news/ railwaymuseum-extension/