Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade HQ gets lottery funding

The Watch House displays artefacts, pictures and relics from old shipwrecks

A group of Tyneside sea rescue volunteers has been awarded £245,000 by the Heritage Lottery Fund to restore its Grade II-listed headquarters.

The Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade (TVLB) will carry out structural work on its Watch House building.

The restoration will form part of the bid to attract more people in the brigade's 150th anniversary year.

The building, which houses a shipwrecks and lifesaving museum, has been home to the TVLB since 1887.

The group hopes that bringing more visitors to the museum will increase its volunteer base.

Peter Lilley, of the TVLB, said: "We are all overjoyed at the prospect that our home will receive the care and attention it needs to ensure the building remains in use for many years to come."

Ivor Crowther, head of the Heritage Lottery Fund for the North East, said he was "particularly pleased" to see the project going ahead and would like to encourage more funding applications from the North Tyneside area.

In addition to the lottery funding, the TVLB has raised £50,000 in voluntary contributions and is getting £100,000 from North Tyneside Council.

The work will take 16 weeks and is expected to start within the next two months.