It has been four years in the making and a long time coming, but Dorchester's historical courthouse has officially opened.

Shire Hall Historical Courthouse Museum, located on High West Street, officially opens its doors to the public at 9am today.

Shire Hall first opened in 1796-97. It served as the County Hall for Dorset and was a centre of law, order and government for more than 200 years. In 1955 the newly built county hall and crown court took over this role.

The transformation of the new Shire Hall was made possible thanks to a £1.5million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, which was match- funded by West Dorset District Council.

The new museum will use interactive technology to take visitors journey from cells to the dock and experience first-hand what it must have been like. Visitors will be able to follow four significant stories of people who had walked through the building: Martha Brown, the last woman hanged in Dorset; Daniel Baker, a reoffending criminal; the Tolpuddle Martyrs whose trial sparked the start of the trade union movement and Elijah Upjohn, the petty criminal who will be forever remembered as the man who hanged Ned Kelly.

With the Tolpuddle Martyrs having such significance to the town, a cell within Shire Hall - where all six men were held for three days whilst they awaited their trial - has been dedicated to them and left very much how it was in the 1800s.

Visitors will also be able to learn more about who passed through the courts - including why a 15-year-old boy was executed in 1833 and why a seven-year-old boy was sentenced to 10 days in prison and five years at a reformative school.

Director at Shire Hall, Anna Bright, said: "When I came to work here I had such big visions for the place. It's quite a small museum but I thought let's see if we can get this to premier league standards and I think we definitely managed to do that.

"We have achieved something which tells lots and lots of stories in a simple and elegant way, and in a way that is fun and interactive for families with children. We have done a lot of work and research with children and when we last had a group here they were here for twice as long as we expected, they loved it."

Ms Bright added: "The biggest challenge of the refurbishment was the actually building. With it being a listed building we didn't know what we were going to find a long the way. It took us six months longer than expected to get where we wanted it - a large part of that was because of the roof. But we did it and I'm so proud of what we have achieved."

The first visitor to Shire Hall today will be treated to a year's supply of coffee at its café and the following 99 visitors will receive one free coffee.

The new courthouse has been welcomed by the South West Trades Union Congress (TUC).

Commenting on the opening, Nigel Costley, South West TUC regional secretary and one of the Museum’s trustees said: “Shire Hall is of great significance to the trade union movement. It is here where six ordinary farm workers from Tolpuddle were arrested and sentenced on trumped up charges simply for wanting to speak out against deeply unjust cuts to their wages.

"Learning about the struggles of the Tolpuddle farmers and what other ordinary working people in 19th Century England went through really brings home how far we’ve come both at work and in our criminal justice system.

"The museum has been fantastically restored to give visitors of all ages a real experience of what it was like at the time.”