
Family Events
Following on from the success of the Mining Institute's involvement with the Great Exhibition of the North in 2018 (remember the Lego!), The Common Room is engaging families with hands-on events and activities, unleashing creativity and sparking innovation. This year sees the reopening of our newly refurbished Grade II* listed building in which we are delivering a programme of family activities throughout 2021. Find out more about our Opening Festival events by visiting our What's On Page.

Our Places
'Our Places' are courses which use The Common Room’s collection to explore the industrial heritage of the local area. Led by Dr Dorothy Hamilton, who runs local history courses for adults, each course culminates in creating a banner to showcase the group’s research.
We have run three courses so far: one exploring Darlington's engineering past, another at Sacriston, researching Colonel William Cuthbert Blackett and lastly one exploring Northumberland’s Coal Mining History – the miners and their families.

Public Lectures
The Common Room provides a platform for discussion, debate and influence. Speakers at our events represent a diverse cross-section of the community and industry, bringing a wealth of knowledge on a broad range of topics from waggonways to women in engineering and from social mobility to the fourth industrial revolution.

Our Voices
We want to capture the voices of the region, to hear stories of innovation, mining and engineering. These stories will be included in a permanent exhibition within The Common Room building in Autumn 2021.

Explore Online
Our ‘explore online’ programme offers a range of exciting activities for all the family.
Whether you’re interested in our industrial heritage and want to find out more about engineers of the past, or you want to explore what lies beneath our feet or do our weekly challenges, there is something for everyone to enjoy remotely.