Work on the new museum, which will be located in The Tree and The Tree Annexe with a glass link between the two, is expected to start in April 2015 and take around 18 months to complete.

The successful HLF bid will see The Tree restored, renovated and fitted out as a new museum space. The project will see new specialist display facilities and equipment in The Tree and The Tree Annexe, educational material developed and lots of exciting opportunities ahead for volunteers and the public to get involved.

The Tree has great potential to improve heritage in Crawley, with its central location, architectural quality and greater size than the current museum in Goffs Park House. The Tree is a Grade II listed building and well worth preserving, originating around 1280. Crawley Museum Society will operate the new service with financial support from the council.

The total cost of the project is £1.95m. Crawley Borough Council had already agreed to spend £763,000 to refurbish The Tree and bring it up to standard. Planning permission, which was a stipulation of the bid, has already been granted.

Councillor Duncan Crow, Cabinet member for Leisure and Culture, said: “This is absolutely fantastic news. We’ve been working closely with Crawley Museum Society to develop our bid over the past few years and are delighted that the Heritage Lottery Fund has approved this.

“The new museum will provide a massive boost to the regeneration and heritage in the town, giving the museum a much more central location from which to inform, educate and entertain.

“I would like to thank the Heritage Lottery Fund, volunteers and staff of the Crawley Museum Society, officers and staff of Crawley Borough Council and councillors who have supported us.”

Stuart McLeod, Head of Heritage Lottery Fund South East England, said: “A new museum in one of the town’s oldest buildings will give heritage an enhanced role in the educational and cultural life of Crawley. It will provide increased opportunities for community-based events alongside both temporary and permanent exhibitions about the history of the town and its people.”

Further information

Laura Bates, HLF press office, 020 7591 6027 / lbates@hlf.org.uk.