The famous cavern beneath Dudley, which is to be filled in to prevent it collapsing, will be recreated as a three-dimensional virtual reality experience for people to explore, it emerged today.

The Cathedral Cavern within the Step Shaft Mine, beneath Wrens Nest National Nature Reserve, is to be blocked up with hundreds of tons of sand. There are now plans to go down into the cave and record images which will be used to create a real life version of the underground spectacle for the screen.

The exhibit will then go on display at Dudley Museum and Art Gallery in St James’s Road later this year as an educational resource.

The Black Country lost out on a bid for £50m lottery cash which would have been used in part to open up the cavern and create a world class underground visitor attraction.

Dudley Council’s principal engineer Roger Morgan, said: “A laser camera will be set up on a tripod in the cavern which will rotate 360 degrees horizontally and 180 degrees vertically.

“It will send out a laser signal which will hit the walls of the cavern at every point and send millions of signals back to the data recorder. This will capture every co-ordinate of the mine.

“This 3-D model will give the public the chance to take a virtual reality look at this magnificent cavern and will also be vital in helping with future works. It will be key to helping us design the strata project and will record how the mine looks now so that when we re-open it we can see if any areas have changed.”

Before it is filled in it will be open for 10 days in May when archaeological and geological experts will go down into the cavern to collect data and samples.

Mr Morgan added: “Work will include a full archaeological survey to look for industrial and mining artefacts and a full high quality photograph and video survey of the cavern. A highly specialised geological assessment will also be undertaken by Birmingham and Dudley Council while Geo-Educational from Cornwall will also visit the site.”