Hardy archive Dorset museum secures £10.4m funding

Dorset County Museum's exhibits span 170 years and chart the county's natural, geological and social history

The archive of novelist Thomas Hardy and Jurassic Coast fossils have helped a Dorset museum secure almost £10.4m in Heritage Lottery Funding (HLF).

The cash will help to fund Dorset County Museum's planned expansion which was revealed last July.

HLF described the Dorchester-based museum's collection of objects, spanning 170 years, as "remarkable".

Items on display include a Weymouth Bay pliosaur fossil and Hardy's handwritten manuscript for The Woodlanders.

A red dress belonging to Thomas Hardy's sister Kate, which is thought to be the dress described in his novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles, is on display at the museum

A red dress belonging to Hardy's sister Kate, which is thought to be the dress described in his novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles, is also on display.

Other exhibits include Roman artefacts, dinosaur footprints, a 140 million-year-old crocodile found in Swanage, and illustrations from the first publication of the writer's serialisation of Far From the Madding Crowd for Victorian The Cornhill magazine.

The museum, owned by the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, is one of the oldest privately-owned attractions of its kind.

Hardy's original handwritten manuscript for The Woodlanders is included in the museum's collection

A pliosaur discovered in Weymouth Bay is also on display

The extension to the Grade-I listed building in High West Street would allow the society's full collection, some of which is in storage, to be brought together for the first time.

It would also provide facilities for other museums in the county to safely store artefacts.

John Murden, the museum's director, said creating the centre would help "unlock the potential for understanding and explaining Dorset's heritage, identity and sense of place our collections unquestionably contain".

He said it would enable the museum to "make better and much more accessible use of our objects for display and research, and to create inspirational learning and volunteering opportunities".

The museum's collection includes illustrations from the first publication of Far From The Madding Crowd in 1873

Dinosaur footprints from Swanage feature in the museum's Jurassic Coast gallery

Also included in the development are plans to conserve John White's Rectory in Colliton Street.

Appointed rector in 1605, he led one of the earliest fleet of ships that sailed across the Atlantic to form a colony in Massachusetts.

The museum houses a reconstruction of Thomas Hardy's third study from his home at Max Gate

Expansion plans for the museum include a discovery centre to house the museum's artefacts