A MINING museum has secured lottery funding to help improve facilities.

Woodend Mining Museum, in Reedley Hallows, near Burnley, has been awarded £9,932, which will primarily help pay for a new roof.

They will also use the cash to tile the inside of the building.

Carole Johnson, who runs the museum with husband Harry, said: “We were delighted when we heard we had been successful. It’s fantastic news.

“The roof has needed doing for quite a while. We’ve got a very thin and flimsy roof at the moment. We’ve been crossing our fingers that it will survive the winter with the gales we’ve been having.

“The new roof will be the main thing, but we can also have the inside of the building tiled throughout to make it a bit more appealing, and a new security system.

“The inside of the roof will also be white which will make it a lot brighter inside. By having a proper roof on it will also make the museum a lot warmer.”

Mr and Mrs Johnson bought Smithson Farm in 2004 and, in 2012, opened the mining museum on part of the land.

They first came up with the idea of opening a mining museum when they began to redevelop the farm, which was once home to the head of the Woodend Pit.

As they redeveloped the farm the couple began to come across a number of old mining tools and oddments scattered around the site.

Mrs Johnson said: “We’ve had a great response to the museum, with lots of visitors and we’ve got more groups booked in. It’s also become a meeting place for former miners, which is fantastic.”

The museum will now be closed until the end of March for the refurbishment.