A £5.1m project to transform a city museum has finished and opens to the public later.
Salisbury Museum was only partially open while the work was going on, which included renovations to the listed building, creating new galleries and putting objects on display not seen by the public before.
There are new interactive, audiovisual elements too – for example, the centuries-old “Salisbury giant” can virtually tell his own story.
Chief operating officer at the museum Lucy Bridal said: “Every single person in Salisbury can find in something that relates to their history in the city no matter how long they’ve lived here.”
The project – called Past Forward: Salisbury Museum for Future Generations – has been a long one.
Museum director Adrian Green said it has been about five years in the making, with heritage lottery funding first coming in 2019.
It started out at £3.2m, but more was needed and £1.2m was fundraised.
The museum is inside the King’s House, itself interesting historically as it has a history dating back to the 13th Century and is Grade-I listed. It means a lot of the work was on the fabric of the building itself.
Mr Green said: “We’ve tried to respect the history of this building. We’ve tried to weave in the story we’re telling about the city of Salisbury with the building itself.”
Objects loaned to the museum by local Ken Smith, a former history teacher, tell a harrowing tale.
His father, Jim Smith, was well-known in the city for running a junk shop and being a children’s author, but during World War Two, he had been a prisoner of war in Japan.
Alongside other items, his backpack can be seen.
His son said he carried it for more than three years through the camps and islands he was taken to: “Everything he owned was in that pack. It’s got a secret compartment in the bottom.
“Towards the end of the war, the prisoners made a little radio so they could hear the war was almost finished.
“So the Japanese wouldn’t find it, they all took it apart and all hid bits in their bags. He hid the piece he had in the compartment.”
Mr Smith was impressed with the redevelopment: “It’s light years away from the old gallery.”
Something else that could not be displayed before is a 13th Century chess piece.
“It’s an amazing thing,” said director Adrian Green.
“It’s made out of walrus ivory. The original was in the safe. Ever since I’ve been here, it’s been locked away, but now we have the right security, it’s on display.”
The project has had lots of support from the local community, with some researching, co-curating and young people involved too, such as in the new natural history gallery.
That contains fossils and even the vertebrae of an ancient sea monster, an ichthyosaur.
It is not just three main permanent galleries and the building that have had a revamp – there is also a more flexible learning and events area there now, along with new activities.
The money came from the lottery funding, but also a number of individuals and charitable foundations.
