| UK. £150,000 facelift for visitor centre on Huddersfield Narrow Canal |
|
|
|
| Thursday, 16 February 2006 | |
|
Waterways news: British Waterways Yorkshire has commissioned an award-winning tourism and leisure consultancy to carry out a £150,000 makeover on one of Yorkshire’s tourist attractions. Located along the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, Standedge Visitor Centre is the site of Britain’s highest, longest and deepest canal tunnel and it is hoped the facelift will help make it one of the North’s top tourism destinations. New plans to be put into action at Standedge during the 2006 season include:- New interpretation to be installed on the ground floor of the warehouse; Free entry to the exhibition in the ground floor of the warehouse; More guided boat trips into the Tunnel, with trips running five days a week (Saturday, Sunday, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Bank holidays) from Easter until the end of October; Better facilities for school groups; Making the warehouse available for use by the local community out of normal visitor centre opening hours; Improved signage, to help visitors navigate around the site. The changes are expected to be fully complete by the summer, although the guided boat trips into the Tunnel will recommence as normal at Easter. They come a result of an extensive consultation exercise with representatives from the Millennium Commission, comments from visitors to the site, the local community in Marsden and the surrounding areas. The Visitor Centre was refurbished four years ago as part of a £32 million Lottery grant to open up the Huddersfield Narrow Canal to more visitors – a honey pot site for tourists - as part of British Waterways vision to double customer numbers to the waterways by 2012. Laurence Morgan, general manager at British Waterways, Yorkshire, commented: "The Tunnel itself is a tremendous feat of engineering and this year in fact marks the 200th Anniversary of Thomas Telford’s appointment to finish the original tunnel, so in fact it will be a double celebration for Standedge. "We are now confident that the additional investment we are making to the Visitor Centre will bring positive results and the Millennium Commission has supported this decision. The upgraded interpretation will reflect the importance of this attraction as part of our national heritage, and we now have the go-ahead to encourage more community groups to use the building for meetings and educational purposes." Millennium commissioner Judith Donovan CBE said: "The Millennium Commission is proud to have supported Huddersfield Narrow Canal with over £14.8 million of Lottery money. "The re-launch of the Standedge Visitor Centre is very exciting. It will create a fun and interactive visitor centre enabling people to experience Britain’s rich canal history while providing an important educational resource. The Millennium Commission is proud to be supporting this project which has resurrected one of the most spectacular canals in the UK, acting as a catalyst for regeneration and creating a lasting legacy for generations to come." |
|
| Last Updated ( Thursday, 16 February 2006 ) |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|