COLNE VALLEY’S LOTTERY-FUNDED MUSEUM TO OPEN AT EASTER
Despite a “frustrating period” of delays, the Colne Valley Railway’s Heritage Lottery-funded museum will open at Easter in the first stage of the site’s major redevelopment.
The museum – titled the ‘Brewster Interpretation Centre’ after the first chairman of the original Colne Valley & Halstead Light Railway
– is structurally complete and its displays are under construction.
The new reception building has also been erected, but construction of the car park and entrance roads was held up by difficulties in sourcing suitable roadstone.
The railway is also awaiting the permit from Essex County Council Highways to construct the new entrance from the A1017 road.
“It’s been a fight,” commented CVR Chairman Paul Lemon, “but we will be opening at Easter come hell or high water.”
The second stage of the development – the carriage restoration shed, titled the ‘Cubitt Skills Centre’ after the CV&HR’s first engineer – has been deferred until the spring, as the site for this building is still being used to store materials for the car park and entrance roads.
A £1.75 million HLF grant funded the purchase of the ¾-mile line from Australian businessman Christopher Young (SR462) as well as the redevelopment of the site, titled ‘All Aboard: Developing the Colne Valley Railway’.