The boiler house and stone and brick chimney at the museum are Grade II listed structures[2] built around 1876 for Emma Lister Kaye along with the steam winding engine house, boiler yard, heapstead and ventilation shaft which are Grade II* listed.

[6] The museum offers guided underground tours where visitors can experience the conditions miners worked in and see the tools and machines they used as the industry and the mine developed through the years.

Above ground, the museum sits on a 45-acre (18 ha) semi-rural site, with over a dozen galleries documenting the social and industrial history of the mines.

The extensive library and archive contains a first edition of De re Metallica, as well as issues of "Coal News" and details of collieries throughout England.

The site maintains an operating paddy train connecting the main Caphouse hub to the Hope Pit area of the site, where a natural Water Treatment facility with reed beds and bird hides is operated in partnership with the Coal Authority.

A new interactive Pony Discovery Centre was opened in 2021 replacing the older stables block sited in the Boiler Yard.