About
Woodhorn Museum occupies a former colliery site in the heart of the Northumberland coalfield, preserving the original Victorian pit buildings, winding gear, engine houses, and associated structures of Woodhorn Colliery — a working coal mine from the 1890s until its closure in 1981. Set within the sweeping landscape of QE2 Country Park near Ashington, the museum tells the story of the communities, men, women and children whose lives were shaped by the coal industry across the Northumberland coalfield.
At the heart of the museum's international significance is the Ashington Group collection — a body of work by self-taught Ashington miners who formed an art appreciation class in the 1930s and went on to become celebrated painters in their own right. These working miners, who picked up brushes alongside their pit shifts, documented the daily life of a Northumberland mining community with extraordinary insight, humour and humanity. Their story was dramatised in Lee Hall's acclaimed stage play 'The Pitmen Painters' (2007), which later transferred to Broadway and was adapted for BBC television, bringing the Ashington Group to audiences worldwide.
The museum's Northumberland Archives hold one of the most important regional documentary collections in England, comprising records relating to the Northumberland coalfield, local government, landed estates, churches, businesses, and private families spanning many centuries. The archives serve researchers, local historians, and genealogists seeking to explore the history of the region.
Set across a wide open-air site with the distinctive winding gear and engine houses of the former colliery as its backdrop, Woodhorn offers a compelling combination of industrial heritage, community history, fine art, and archival resources. The surrounding QE2 Country Park provides additional outdoor space, making Woodhorn a full day destination for families, history enthusiasts, and lovers of working-class art.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
📅 Best Times to Visit
Quietest: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
Busiest: Saturday, Sunday
💡 Weekday mornings for quietest experience; weekends often bring events and activities for families
💡 Visitor Tips
- Allow at least two and a half hours for a full visit — the Ashington Group gallery alone deserves an hour, and the colliery buildings add significant outdoor time on top of the indoor galleries.
- The Northumberland Archives are co-located at Woodhorn — if you want to carry out family history or local history research, book a searchroom appointment in advance on the museum website.
- The outdoor colliery site is exposed to Northumberland weather — bring layers and a waterproof even in summer, as the wind off the Northumberland coast can be brisk.
- If you know the story of the Pitmen Painters from Lee Hall's play or the BBC film, the gallery will feel like meeting old friends in person — the paintings are even more moving when encountered directly.
- QE2 Country Park surrounds the museum with walking trails and a lake — bring picnic food and combine the museum with a walk around the park for a full family day out.
- Woodhorn is free to enter, which makes it exceptional value for families. The cafe is well priced and a good spot for lunch between the indoor galleries and the outdoor colliery tour.
- Check the museum's website before visiting for details of any current temporary exhibitions — Woodhorn has an active programme and there is usually something new running alongside the permanent displays.
Highlights
The Ashington Group Collection
The Ashington Group are one of Britain's most remarkable artistic phenomena — a group of working miners from Ashington who formed an art appreciation class in the 1930s under the guidance of Robert Lyon of King's College, Newcastle, and went on to paint prolifically for several decades. Their paintings, executed after long shifts underground, document the daily life of a mining community: the pit itself, the back streets of Ashington, football matches, whippets, allotments, boxing, and family life.
Raw, direct, and deeply human, their work has attracted growing critical acclaim as an extraordinary document of working-class experience in 20th-century Britain.
The full collection at Woodhorn represents the most comprehensive holding of Ashington Group paintings anywhere in the world.
The Pitmen Painters Connection
The Ashington Group's story was brought to a global audience by Lee Hall's acclaimed stage play 'The Pitmen Painters', which premiered at Live Theatre Newcastle in 2007 before transferring to the National Theatre in London and subsequently to Broadway. The play dramatises the miners' journey from tentative art students to celebrated painters, exploring questions of class, culture, and who gets to make and own art.
A subsequent BBC film adaptation introduced the story to television audiences.
Woodhorn Museum was integral to the story being told and visitors can discover the real paintings behind the drama, meeting the men whose lives Hall depicted on stage.
Woodhorn Colliery — Victorian Pit Buildings
Woodhorn Colliery was sunk in the 1890s and operated for almost a century before closure in 1981. The museum preserves the original Victorian colliery buildings, including the distinctive headgear (winding gear) that once lowered men and equipment into the mine, the engine houses that powered the winding mechanisms, the lamp cabin, and ancillary structures.
These scheduled ancient monument-grade industrial buildings represent the physical infrastructure of the Northumberland coalfield at the height of its productivity, and their preservation within a functioning museum gives visitors a powerful sense of the scale and character of a working colliery.
Northumberland Archives
Woodhorn houses the Northumberland Archives, one of the most significant regional document collections in England. The archives hold historic records relating to every aspect of Northumberland life: landed estates, churches, local government, businesses, coal mining companies, private families, and public institutions, with material spanning from medieval documents to 20th-century records.
For genealogists, local historians, and researchers, the archives provide an unparalleled resource for exploring Northumberland's past.
An advance appointment is typically required to visit the searchroom — contact the archives directly to plan a research visit.
Collections
Woodhorn Museum's collections centre on two interconnected strengths: the industrial heritage of Woodhorn Colliery itself and the remarkable art of the Ashington Group. The colliery buildings — preserved as scheduled industrial monuments — form the largest element of the physical collection, complemented by machinery, equipment, photographs, and documents from the working pit.
The Ashington Group art collection is internationally significant: several hundred paintings by the self-taught miner-artists of Ashington, documenting working-class life in the North East from the 1930s to the 1980s.
Alongside these, the museum holds extensive social history collections relating to the Northumberland coalfield, including personal objects, oral history recordings, and photographic archives. The Northumberland Archives, co-located at the site, add a documentary dimension of outstanding regional importance.
Ashington Group — The Pitmen Painters
The permanent gallery dedicated to the Ashington Group presents the full range of their painting across several decades, from early experimental works of the late 1930s to mature paintings of the 1960s and 1970s. Individual artists are introduced — Oliver Kilbourn, Harry Wilson, Jimmy Floyd, and others — alongside the story of how Robert Lyon's WEA art appreciation class transformed working miners into celebrated self-taught painters.
📍 Ashington Group Gallery
Working the Coal — Life on the Northumberland Coalfield
This gallery explores the full experience of coal mining from the perspective of the men, women, and children who lived and worked in the pit communities of Northumberland. Underground conditions, surface work, wages, trade union organisation, disasters, and the culture of the miners' club are all explored through objects, photographs, and oral testimonies.
📍 Mining galleries
Colliery Buildings — Scheduled Monuments
The outdoor trail around the former colliery site guides visitors through the surviving Victorian and Edwardian pit buildings, explaining the function of each structure in the operations of a working colliery. Interpretation panels provide context about the construction, technology, and human stories associated with each building.
📍 Colliery site outdoor trail
Themes
Time Periods
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.