Wollaton Hall: Funding found for natural history museum revamp

Wollaton Hall is home to the largest dedicated natural history museum in Nottinghamshire

The Natural History Museum galleries at Wollaton Hall in Nottingham will be refurbished to make them more engaging.

Featuring 750,000 objects, it is the largest dedicated natural history museum in Nottinghamshire.

The city council said the revamp would be paid for with a £226,000 grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The authority's executive board approved the refurbishment programme in September 2019, but it could only take place when it was deemed affordable.

Since opening in 1926, Wollaton Hall has been home to Nottingham's Natural History Museum.

It includes fossils, minerals, plants, shells and taxidermy, with rare specimens from across the world.

Currently managed by the council's museums service alongside Newstead Abbey and Nottingham Castle, documents from the authority highlight the need to revamp the displays, said the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"Audience research shows that whilst Wollaton Hall is greatly cherished by local communities, they find that the un-refurbished galleries are tired looking and not engaging," they said.

"The grant has been awarded for the Wollaton Hall Transformation Programme and will be used to transform the Natural History Museum permanent galleries at Wollaton Hall, to make them more engaging for a wider audience."