Museum to expand despite lottery loss

The Ryedale Folk Museum, in Hutton-le-Hole, near Kirbymoorside, is to begin work on the large-scale expansion in the summer despite a bid for the lottery grant proving ineligible as it failed to meet tight timescales.

But trustees of the museum have set about seeking grants from other sources and say the work is now due to begin in a matter of months.

Mike Benson, director of the museum, said they had already managed to secure about £1m – the latest a £230,000 grant from Ryedale District Council – and despite the shortfall, had decided to push ahead with the project and hope more funding comes in at a later date.

He said: “The first phase of work will cost around £700,000 and then hopefully once construction starts it will not stop.

“The development will provide a home for a collection of household and rural life artefacts and we believe the exhibition will prove a tremendous boost to the museum,”

The three-phase development plan includes an extension to its historic High Barn, one of several ancient buildings in the museum’s grounds, and the provision of a new educational centre.

Julian Rudd, Ryedale Council’s head of economy, said: “The museum has been successful, despite the difficult economic climate, in securing a significant amount of funding from a rage of sources, including the district council, charitable trusts, and the Moors and Coast EU-LEADER programme.”

The Ryedale Folk museum is Yorkshire’s leading open air museum and seen as critical to the district’s tourist industry.

It has 13 historic buildings set around three acres showing the lives of ordinary North Yorkshire people from the earliest inhabitants to 1953.