Sporting Bygones: Headingley keen to attract both young and old in new museum

Now, thanks to the generosity of a benefactor – an individual wishing to remain anonymous – who has given the club 300,000, and the freeing up of more space in the new Carnegie Pavilion it is now envisaged that the Yorkshire Cricket Museum will be up and running by the end of the season.

Once the pavilion is completed, Yorkshire's marketing and accounts operations, as well as the offices used by director of professional cricket Martyn Moxon and his staff, will be moved out of the East Stand into the new building.

That will open up space running almost the length of the ground floor and it is there that the museum will be created.

Implementation of the plan is already at an advanced stage and Yorkshire's Archive Committee are determined their innovation will appeal to both the traditionalists and to the younger generation.

"We want to make it attractive to youngsters, easy for young people to absorb the history of the club and the game," says David Hall, the chairman of the group behind the museum project.

To achieve that objective, the club have employed the services of Mather and Company, a Wilmslow-based firm with an excellent pedigree in the making of modern museums, having worked with Arsenal, Manchester City and the Lawn Tennis Association among others.

"We drew up a short-list of three specialist companies who were interviewed and gave presentations and decided to go with Mathers," said Hall. "Their work at the Emirates Stadium, Wimbledon and elsewhere was first-class."

Discussions with the planning authority are proceeding and it is hoped that work can begin in June. The line of the glass frontage will be slightly amended, a new entrance will be created and extensive re-wiring will be needed. Once that is completed the museum itself will begin to take shape. "Ideally we would like to be open in September," said Hall.

Mathers have already finalised several of the exhibits and the make-up of the first showing of Yorkshire's cricket history has already been fixed.

"Yorkshire have played on 25 grounds within the county and we shall be looking at them with the help of photographs as well as going back to the roots of the county game with pieces of equipment from the era – one of Lord Hawke's bats and a ball used by Alonzo Drake in the match against Somerset when he took 15 wickets, for example," said Hall.

"There will be a section on the golden eras of the Twenties, the Thirties and the Sixties; Roy Wilkinson, Yorkshire official statistician, has identified several matches of particular significance which will be highlighted and there will also be a section on Roses matches.

"At the far end of the museum will be a theatre where people will be able to see the DVDs we have produced on Yorkshire cricketing legends, again aiming to attract and enthuse youngsters as well as cricket buffs. There will be lots of opportunities for visitors to the museum to interact with the exhibits, we will have an electronic book which gives a potted history of Yorkshire cricket in just 10 minutes and there is a Yorkshire Scroll of Honour detailing all the successes the club has enjoyed."

Initially the museum will concentrate purely on Yorkshire cricket but there are plans to spotlight historic Test matches played at Headingley – those featuring Don Bradman, Fred Trueman, Geoffrey Boycott, Ian Botham and Bob Willis being just a few – while there will also be a tribute to Darren Lehmann, who donated the bat, whites, sweater, pads and gloves used on the day in 2006 when he made 339 against Durham at Headingley.

"The aim will always be to tell the story of the match, the innings or the bowling performance," added Hall. "There are such great stories to tell about Yorkshire cricket, from the days of Roger Iddison, the first captain, right through to today's team."

The museum will be open whenever Yorkshire play at Headingley but entry will also be available by arrangement on other days. Entrance will be free for county members with a charge – yet to be determined – for non-members.

Yorkshire are also planning to introduce tours of the ground, taking in the museum and new pavilion, while a further innovation is the ability to use the museum for dinners and social functions by clubs and cricket societies up to a maximum of 40 people.

The Carnegie Pavilion is a symbol of Yorkshire's ambitions for the future; the museum will be proof that they continue to treasure the past.