‘TOMORROW’S museum for Dorset’ is making strides towards becoming a reality today.

In the heart of Dorchester, staff at Dorset County Museum, home to 200 million years of Dorset’s history, have been working tirelessly towards a future they believe will ‘make Dorset proud’.

Last year, the museum secured an ‘exceptional’ Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) grant of £9.9 million, unlocking an opportunity to dramatically expand the museum.

Since then, the museum has gone from strength to strength as the staff work to attempt to raise £3.3 million needed to unlock the HLF grant.

Director of the museum, Dr Jon Murden, and development manager Gabriella Crouch believe the plans will provide a new ‘community hub’ in Dorset.

Together, they took the Echo behind the scenes to get an update on how the development has progressed since last year.

The museum was established nearly 175 years ago by social reformer Rev Henry Moule and teacher and poet William Barnes.

Along with a group of supporters, they created a space for heritage ‘they felt to be at risk from the march of progress in Victorian England’.

Today, the museum hopes with the development to be ‘the lynchpin of Dorchester’s heritage quarter and key to Dorset’s cultural and tourism offer’.

Miss Crouch said: “I just see it as being such a transformation.

“We are going to be up there with the national museums. We aren’t underestimating how much support we are going to need from the public though.”

She said: “It’s the largest grant ever offered to Dorset.

“A lot of people are interested in where the money is coming from.

“Without raising £3.3 million we can’t unlock £9.9 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund.”

The museum has to raise the £3.3 million by May next year to secure the full grant. Miss Crouch said the public have shown a lot of generosity.

She said: “We have developed quite significantly. This is where we start to get to the nitty gritty part.”

“We are very confident that we are getting money coming in soon.”

Dr Murden said: “It’s transformative of the collections, of the organisation and its perceptions and our sustainability of the business.”

He added: “The reason we want to secure the funding is the national importance.

“For example, we have the largest Thomas Hardy collection.

“The fact that Dorset has such significant collections is really brilliant. That’s why the opportunity is here.”

Although the museum has a huge collection, the size of the current space means most of the pieces can’t go on display due to a lack of space.

Dr Murden said: “We have 1.5 per cent of the museum’s collections on display. The rest is stored in buildings around Dorset in buildings that aren’t designed to collect and hold those items.

“We’re looking to develop public access to stored collections. We get a lot of people wanting to go behind the scenes and it’s about how we do that to make it possible.

“We want to give people a hands on approach.”

Miss Crouch added: “It’s about letting people know that we have the incredible collections here and unlocking the displays and bringing them to life.”

Dr Murden hopes to expand on museum education and workshops helping people in the community with alzheimers, autism and disabilities.

He said: “It’s amazing to see the confidence and skills that have come out from the workshops.

Miss Crouch added: “We want to be able to deliver more. There’s a lot of rural isolation.”

She added the museum wants to ‘combat’ the rural isolation.

“It should be a community hub and should be an active place.”

If the museum is successful in securing the funds by May 2017, there will be a two year development phase starting in the summer of 2018 with a view to open in 2020.

Dr Murden said the disruption to museum opening times will be minimal.

Plans went on display to the public on August 9 to give the public the opportunity to meet the architects and give feedback.

The team want to make the museum a ‘world-class’ contemporary exhibition space. It’s hoped the new gallery spaces and learning centre will enhance visitors experience and give them access to the thousands of unseen items.

The museum hopes the changes will put them on the same level as national museums.

Dr Murden said:”This is a museum for Dorset so it has to be a museum that everyone wants and likes because it’s for them.

“It’s a juggling act, but it’s working so far. It’s a change – but a good one.”