In last weekend’s post about Magna, I mentioned that it had escaped the fate of another nearby Millennium Project, The Earth Centre, further down the Don Valley. The Earth Centre opened in 1999, but closed just five years later.
Thankfully, unlike Transperience (another failed museum near Bradford that I wrote about in 2010), I did manage to visit the Earth Centre whilst it was open. That being said, my visit was around 25 years ago. I don’t think I still have any photos of my visit, and even if I did, they would’ve been shot on photographic film as I didn’t get a digital camera until 2003. The image above is from Geograph and re-used under this Creative Commons license. This also means that my observations are from rather old memories.
The Earth Centre was a visitor attraction to showcase ways that we could be more sustainable, and reduce our negative impacts on the environment. There was a large solar panel array, and I remember there being a building with a small wood burner that could generate heat from fast-growing willow trees on-site. There were also play areas and things for kids to do. The architecture was modern too, and the buildings were designed to be highly energy efficient – many with grass roofs. A series of reed beds ensured that any sewage produced could be cleaned up before being discharged into the River Don.
It was quite a large site, and as well as walking around, I remember there being a kind-of ‘bike bus’ where every passenger could also peddle, so it didn’t consume any diesel.
Getting there
The Earth Centre was located near the town of Conisbrough in South Yorkshire, on the site of a former coal mine. The site was within walking distance of Conisbrough railway station, and visitors were encouraged to use sustainable forms of transport to get there. Indeed, the relatively small car park was located some distance away. That may have been one of the reasons why it struggled – getting there wasn’t easy. I know we went there by train, but whilst Conisbrough station is on the line between Doncaster and Sheffield, only local stopping services call there. Again, I can’t remember how frequent the trains were back then, but nowadays Conisbrough gets just one train an hour in each direction.
Reasons for failure
The main reason why the Earth Centre closed was a lack of visitors. In its later years, it closed to the general public and was only open to pre-booked groups (e.g. schools), but even that wasn’t enough. I’ve mentioned the difficulties getting there, but I also remember Jeremy Clarkson giving it a hard time on his TV talk show, Clarkson, which ran from 1998 to 2000. He was filmed taking his son there, and made it out that the Earth Centre was some kind of really boring theme park.
But I also think it was maybe ahead of its time. Our knowledge about the environment, and the effects of climate change, have significantly increased in the 20+ years since the Earth Centre closed. Maybe a similar attraction would do better if opened today – especially if it was built somewhere with better transport links.
Over in Wales, there’s the Centre for Alternative Technology which is kind-of similar, and indeed pre-dates the Earth Centre. Sadly, like the Earth Centre was in its later years, it’s now only open to pre-booked groups.
As for the Earth Centre’s fate following closure? For a while, it became an air-soft arena, was used as a filming location, and then in 2011 it became an outdoor activity centre. Although the company that now owns it went into administration last month, so who knows what will happen in future.
I remember my trip to the Earth Centre quite fondly, and for a while later I had a t-shirt from the gift shop which had been made from unbleached cotton (again, a novelty at the time). It was a shame that it closed.
Many more photos of the site are available on this article from the 20th Century Society.