Plans for £2m museum extension set to be approved (From Darlington and Stockton Times)

Plans for £2m museum extension set to be approved

2:06pm Monday 8th February 2010

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PLANS for a £2m extension to house a prestigious collection at a popular museum are in line to be approved.

The Ryedale Folk Museum, at Hutton-le-Hole, near to Pickering, in North Yorkshire, is looking to increase its display space.

If approval is granted it will house the 10,000-item collection of farming memorabilia amassed by Kirkbymoorside brothers Edward and Richard Harrison.

The collection is estimated to be worth over £1m and it was collected over 50-years.

A two pronged application has been entered with the North York Moors National Park’s planning committee by the museum.

Firstly it wants to extend the High Barn to form a new exhibition space and library and it also wants to build a new two storey learning space.

Mike Benson, museum director, said: "I think it’s a great scheme and we hope it’s a success but we can only do what we can.

"The Heritage Lottery Fund have been great in supporting us and Ryedale District Council has given us £250,000 in principle.

"We’ve been fundraising ourselves and it’s got support locally too."

Both plans are recommended for approval by the national park’s planning committee which is set to debate them on Thursday. (feb 11) Val Dilcock, the park’s chief planning officer, states in a report "Ryedale Folk Museum is one of the national park’s key visitor attractions.

"It bolsters the local economy and provides an insight into the ways buildings were laid out and lives lived in centuries past in the park."

A small number of local residents have criticised the scheme saying that no parking provision has been made for increased visitor numbers.

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