Culture Secretary announces next stops for Stephenson’s Rocket

Culture Secretary announces next stops for Stephenson’s Rocket

Ian Blatchford, Ros Kerslake and Jeremy Wright QC MP with Rocket
Ian Blatchford, Ros Kerslake and Jeremy Wright QC MP with Rocket
Stephenson’s Rocket will go on display in Manchester and York, the new Culture Secretary has announced.

Jeremy Wright QC MP, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) visited Newcastle and Gateshead to see the Great Exhibition of the North in full swing and joined Ian Blatchford of the Science Museum to make the announcement at the Discovery Museum.

Rocket stops

With support from National Lottery players, the historic engine returned to Newcastle, its birthplace, for the first time in 150 years. On loan from the Science Museum, it is at Discovery Museum until September as part of the Great Exhibition of the North.

It will then go to Manchester Museum of Science and Industry before going on long-term display at the National Railway Museum in York.

The Minister also saw the National Lottery funded Rocket Science exhibition and met some Little Inventors, a group of children who have been coming up with their own inventions.

Trails of discovery

Another stop was BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art. It is one of three hubs where people can begin a trail of activities to explore themes of art, design and innovation.

The other hubs are Sage Gateshead and Great North Museum: Hancock where hundreds of objects with a Northern link are on show thanks to National Lottery players.

Industry giants

Ros Kerslake, Chief Executive of HLF was also there.  Earlier, she visited the Mining Institute, where an exhibition is exploring how engineers have shaped the world – complete with LEGO and engineering challenges.

Ros heard about the Institute’s vision for the future. It has been awarded £4.1million of National Lottery funding to revitalise its Grade II-listed building and digitise the largest single collection of mining material in the world.

National Lottery in the North of England

Since 1994, the National Lottery has invested nearly £1.8billion into helping heritage in Northern England.

Just recently this has included the restoration of Spanish City in Whitley Bay, Hull’s City of Culture programme and funding for Cheshire’s Jodrell Bank.

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