Dippy the dinosaur visit: mammoth cash injection

Photo: Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London

Dippy the dinosaur

National Lottery funding has been secured to help deliver a fun-packed programme of activities and events to accompany Dippy the dinosaur’s visit to Rochdale in 2020.

Dippy, a 21m-long plaster-of-Paris cast of a Diplodocus carnegii skeleton, is known to millions from its usual home in the Natural History Museum.

Rochdale is set to be its only North West stop as the Natural History Museum’s world famous exhibit tours eight different venues across the country.

https://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/106274/dippy-the-dinosaur-is-coming-to-rochdale

Number One Riverside was selected as the preferred location in the region following a competitive bidding process, which saw more than 90 venues from across the country bid to host the famous dinosaur.

The £90,100 Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) grant will also help create an exhibition at Touchstones Rochdale, so visitors can continue their natural history adventure after they have seen Dippy at Number One Riverside.

The exhibition, which will focus on the natural heritage of Rochdale and how the landscape has changed over time, will include augmented and virtual reality and will be put together with support from experts from the Natural History Museum in London and the University of Manchester.

Councillor Janet Emsley, the cabinet member for neighbourhoods, community and culture at the council, with responsibility for Link4Life, said: “Having a world class exhibit like Dippy, which has been seen and loved by children across the globe, right here in Rochdale is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our borough. That’s why we want it to be so much more than just a fantastic thing to marvel at.

“We intend to put on a full programme of activities during Dippy’s stay to get children and grown ups alike really passionate about science and the natural world and this stage one pass from the HLF is a really important first step in helping us make that happen.”

The money will also help pilot a number of activities which will run during Dippy’s stay. These include a seed planting programme to create a ‘corridor of bees’ in the borough. The aim of this is to teach young people about biodiversity and understand the impact Rochdale’s industrial heritage has had on its natural environment.

Link4Life and Rochdale Borough Council are expected to submit a stage two bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund in March 2019, with up to £159,000 of additonal funding available to help deliver the acitivity programme, if the bid is successful.