The Tank Museum is gearing up for a royal visit later this week.

The Princess Royal will visit the museum in Bovington on Friday, where she will officially open its new workshops.

She will also inspect a newly-restored Second World War Matilda II tank, which has been named ‘Princess Royal’ in her honour.

The workshops are the fourth phase of the museum’s redevelopment which has received £14m in funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund over the last 12 years.

Situated next to the Vehicle Conservation Centre, the workshops will enable far more work to be carried out on the museum’s impressive collection.

Museum director Richard Smith said: “We feel extremely honoured to have our new, state-of-the-art facility opened by The Princess Royal.

“The workshops will greatly increase the amount of conservation work that can be done on our collection.

“Surprisingly little is known about the long-term storage and operation of historic vehicles, and this is critical to ensuring we still have a collection in a hundred years.

“The workshops will help us to retain skills, develop new ones and train staff – including apprentices and volunteers – in how to care for these machines.

“Ultimately they will help us share the knowledge and the stories that we have here at the museum to a wider audience.

“One example of our work is the restoration of a Matilda II tank that we have named ‘Princess Royal’.”

The restoration project can be viewed on the museum’s You Tube channel under the heading ‘Matilda Diaries’.