The Boat Museum at Ellesmere Port has received a £901,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to revitalise the site.

The grant will help fund a £1.3m development scheme to make the site more welcoming to visitors and easier to use and understand.

The new developments will see the creation of a new waterside café and a visitor centre. An orientation centre will also be built in the early 19th century Toll House where visitors can familiarise themselves with the site, and a floating bridge amongst the historic boats will take visitors directly to the Island Warehouse.

Displays will be re-designed to allow more objects to be exhibited and new themes to be explored. This way the museum is looking to offer a much greater insight into the lives of the people who lived and worked on the canals.

Roger Hanbury, chief executive of The Waterways Trust, which runs the Boat Museum, said: “This is great news for us and the nationally important collections we hold for the nation. With this grant we hope to finalise funding and start work on the project later this year.”

In addition to the HLF grant, a range of partners will provide the remaining funding. These include the European Regional Development Fund and the Waste Recycling Environmental Ltd (WREN), which will add a combined sum of £245,000 to the cause. A further £358,000 application has also been made to the North West Development Agency.

Work is expected to begin in September this year and it is due for completion in April 2005.

Situated in the 200-year-old historic dock complex at Ellesmere Port on the River Mersey, most of the museums buildings date back to the peak years of canals in the 1800’s. The seven-acre site has a collection of more than 5,000 objects ranging from canal boats to company buttons and has been run by the Waterways Trust since 1999. The site receives around 40,000 visitors a year. Details: www.boatmuseum.org.uk, www.thewaterwaystrust.co.uk