The museum provides opportunities for everyone to learn, be inspired by, and interact with a vast collection of artefacts, archives, and built heritage – all within unique and special grounds.

Based around two former Victorian china clay works, much of which was designated in 1979 by English Heritage as a Scheduled Ancient Monument, the museum tells the story of Cornwall’s largest mining industry, an industry still alive today. Set in 26 acres of grounds, the museum incorporates a preserved Victorian clay works and gives an insight into this important industry which shaped the lives, landscape and economy of Cornwall’s Clay Country and beyond.

The project secured a significant development of Wheal Martyn which, following its heyday during the 1970s and 1980s, had experienced a substantial decline in visitor numbers.

The project enabled Wheal Martyn to significantly improve access to its visitor centre, and to reduce reliance on subsidies by developing revenue streams to underpin its future sustainability and viability.