Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery to get new roof

The existing Welsh slates and crested ridge tiles will be re-fixed where possible

About £500,000 will be spent on revamping the roof of a Grade II listed museum and gallery in Lancashire.

Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery was one of the first public museums to open outside London in 1874.

It houses collections of national importance including paintings by J W Turner, Japanese prints, Christian icons and Egyptian artefacts.

The painstaking work will take nine months and start this summer, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Blackburn with Darwen Council, which owns the building in Museum Street, authorised the scheme using £100,000 of the authority's own money and a £365,000 Arts Council England grant.

It has now submitted a planning and listed building consent application which includes a heritage statement outlining the plans to replace "all roof coverings over the first floor areas".

A mural covers a large wall to the back of the building in Museum street

The existing roof coverings "are particularly aged with a number of loose and missing ridge details" and slates, the statement said.

"The existing Welsh slates and crested ridge tiles will be stored on site ready to be re-fixed... any shortage of slate will be made up with a locally-sourced and matching Welsh slate," it added.

The work also includes a "severely corroded roof lantern" over the main staircase which is "beyond repair" and will be replaced with a "modern double glazed unit" to let in natural light.