£2m investment to turn museum into key 'social history' centre

A MULTI-million pound revamp of a leading North Yorkshire museum to house one of the country’s most important social history collections – and double the number of visitors – is due to be given the go-ahead this week.

Bosses of Ryedale Folk Museum in Hutton-le-Hole, near Pickering, are seeking consent for a 2m project to expand its historic High Barn exhibition area into a two-storey learning centre and construct a new building opposite it.

As well as a library, the new quarter will house the 1m collection of 10,000 artefacts spanning three decades of social history, donated to the museum by brothers Edward and Richard Harrison, of Kirkbymoorside, in 2006.

The North York Moors National Park Authority’s head of planning, Val Dilcock, said: “The two local brothers wish their collection to remain within Ryedale, to both preserve Ryedale heritage and act as an accessible learning tool for all.

“The collection has been described as one of the most significant social history collections to come into the public domain in the last 30 years.

“Ryedale Folk Museum is one of the national park’s key visitor attractions which both bolsters the local economy and provides an insight into the ways buildings were laid out and lives lived in centuries past within the park.”

The 2m scheme involves both the extension of High Barn, a former double barn used for exhibitions on the museum’s site, and the building of a new two-storey centre.

A range of extensions are planned to the 1990s barn which currently houses vintage tractors, gypsy caravans and cars. Both projects would provide an exhibition space and a library to house the prestigious Harrison Collection.

Developers have claimed the design will create space to accommodate the huge audiences expected to be attracted by the collection, as well providing display room and storage for the artefacts themselves.

There would also be a library, archive and catalogue area, as well as a new learning space to deliver a vast programme of educational activities based around the collection.

Although no change of use permission is needed for the barn, consent is sought for a large contemporary extension to the east gable and a single storey lean-to extension to one wall to form the library.

Planning permission was granted last July for the change of use, alteration and extension of the Barn Guesthouse and Tea Room, on the village’s main street, to house the Harrison Collection, but the scheme fell through.

The number of visitors to the museum is expected to double over the next five years as a result of the redevelopment. A green travel plan has been drawn up to minimise the risk of congestion, which includes discounted entry for cyclists and encouraging the use of coaches for visits by schools and colleges.

The museum’s revamp has been recommended for approval on Thursday, and Mrs Dilcock explained that there were cultural as well as planning reasons to vote yes to the scheme.

The new extensions to the barn did take up a larger footprint than the original building, but that was necessary to provide the amount of exhibition space required for the collections, she added.

“The proposal is for the expansion of this popular tourist attraction so that it can accommodate a prestigious collection,” she said.

“This can provide opportunities for visitors to increase their awareness, understanding and enjoyment of the special qualities of the park and in particular Ryedale’s heritage.”

The new building, the largest on the museum site, would be located opposite the High Barn to create a new “quarter” of contemporary buildings within the museum grounds.