Chain exhibit to open soon

2:34pm Wednesday 7th May 2008

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The Black Country Living Museum put the finishing touches to its latest historic addition - as the project's patron Halesowen and Rowley Regis MP Sylvia Heal helped place the last tile on its roof.

Sylvia was on hand at the Tipton Road museum to perform the official topping out' ceremony for the Workers' Institute in memory of the women chainmakers of Cradley Heath.

The ceremony saw the scaffolding around the 1912 removed, after it had been painstakingly rebuilt brick-by-brick.

The Workers Institute, originally from Cradley Heath, in Sylvia's constituency, was rescued from the path of the town's multi-million pound bypass.

The building now stands in the museum's 26 acre site as a monument to the work of Mary Macarthur, one of Britain's greatest union leaders and the female chainmakers.

The women's ten week strike action in 1910 led to a landmark victory, which helped establish Britain's first piece of legislation on low pay and the beginning of the minimum wage.

Ian Walden, Director of the Black Country Living Museum, said: "Sylvia has been a great supporter of the Institute project since we first considered moving it and she is the project's patron.

"Sylvia helped us with the fundraising when we started dismantling the building and it seemed only fitting that she should help us celebrate the completion of the main structure.

"It will be a few weeks before we can open the Workers' Institute to the public but we are really looking forward to this major new addition to the museum."

The interior of the building will be set in 1935 and will house an exhibition marking the 25th anniversary of the 1910 chainmakers strike.