Lancashire museums closed due to council cuts to reopen

The three museums, including Judges' Lodgings in Lancaster, remained open for school visits

Three museums which closed due to budget cuts are to partially reopen, Lancashire County Council has said.

Burnley's Queen Street Mill, Helmshore Textile Mills and Lancaster's Judges' Lodgings will open on weekends between Easter and October until 2020.

The council stopped funding the museums in 2016 amid efforts to save £65m

A spokeswoman said the reopenings were as a result of working with a museums trust and another organisation, which "cannot be named at this stage".

She said after the proposals were passed at a council cabinet meeting, it was hoped the Helmshore institution would open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 26 May, with the Burnley mill following on 7 July and the Lancaster museum on 21 July.

Queen Street Mill was used as a location for the film The King's Speech

The council's lead member for cultural services, Aidy Riggott, said efforts to reopen the museums had been "focused on talking with organisations which have expressed an interest in taking them on".

As a result, the council will work with the Lancaster Judges' Lodgings Museums Trust and an unnamed organisation at the reopened facilities.

The spokeswoman said all three museums had remained open to school trips since their official closures and such visits would "continue to be offered at the museums each day, and not only on the days that they are open".

She added that no decision on funding beyond 2020 had been made.

Fleetwood's Maritime Museum, which was also lost funding in 2016, is now run by volunteers and opens weekly from Tuesday to Saturday.

A fifth institution which closed, Preston's Museum of Lancashire, will not reopen.