Local Museums

Luke Myer Excerpts

Thursday 5th March 2026 Westminster Hall

[Luke Myer (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Lab)]

It is always a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Ms Lewell. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) on securing this debate on such an important issue, which matters to communities across our country. I thank her for mentioning Captain Cook, who is my constituent—give or take three centuries. I have to disagree with her on one point: I represent the neighbouring constituency to Whitby, which is, of course, a fantastic tourist destination—second only to those slightly further up the coast in my patch.

One of those destinations is the village of Skinningrove, which is just on the edge of the North sea. In that village stands Land of Iron, the leading ironstone mining museum in the country. It is built on the site of the old Loftus mine, which was the first mine to open in the Cleveland area, in 1865. Cleveland’s ironstone travelled across the world from our region and was part of the industrial revolution. The bridges, railways and ships of the industrial age carried the mark of the people who laboured under our cliffs and hills. Today, Land of Iron holds the largest collection of ironstone mining artefacts in the country, telling that story of graft, ingenuity and pride. It hopes one day to be designated as the national ironstone mining museum. I am proud to support it in that fight, and I hope the Minister will commit to meet me to discuss it.

A little further inland, in Stewart Park in Marton, stands the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum, marking the spot where Middlesbrough’s most famous son first saw the world before going on to chart much of it. Ahead of the tricentenary of his birth in 2028, I look forward to working with the museum and the many volunteers who tell that story to make sure that we commemorate the moment appropriately.

Both museums are cherished locally, yet both have faced financial uncertainty in recent years. As Members across the Chamber have mentioned, that issue affects many of our museums across the country, whether they are independent and volunteer-run or run by local authorities. My point to the Minister today is simple: places like these may be small in scale, but they are enormous in meaning for our communities. They keep alive the memory of the communities that built modern Britain, and they deserve support to allow them to keep their doors open for the next generation. I look forward to working with Ministers, our two councils—Middlesbrough, and Redcar and Cleveland—and the museums themselves to maintain our heritage and tell our story for years into the future.