The museum has received £14m of National Lottery funding over the past decade.

[quote-Sir Peter Luff, Chair of HLF]"The Tank Museum achieves brilliantly the aim at the very heart of our work – opening up heritage for all."[/quote]

Sir Peter Luff, Chair of the Heritage Lottery Fund, said: “The Tank Museum has taken a specialist subject – military vehicles - and presented it in a way that makes it enjoyable and interesting to a wide range of visitors. It achieves brilliantly the aim at the very heart of our work – opening up heritage for all – and we are grateful to National Lottery players for making this possible.”

New workshop

A much-needed larger and better equipped workshop will be built adjacent to the existing Vehicle Conservation Centre. 

“The new workshop will increase the amount of conservation work that can be done on our collection,” said Museum Director Richard Smith. “This in turn will allow us to host a new apprentice scheme to train the next generation of conservators and restorers.”

Research programme

The funding will also support a research programme to build up the body of knowledge and develop best practice for the care of historic vehicles.  This will be an essential training tool for staff in the future.

Reaching new audiences

There are also plans to work more closely with local schools and universities, along with plans to reach new audiences through the use of digital media. The museum already successfully uses Facebook and YouTube to reach a wider audience than those who are able to visit in person. 

Next steps

The next steps will be to document restoration projects using YouTube videos and share the collections and their accompanying stories on Facebook.

Construction set to begin

Construction of the new workshop building is expected to commence in a month’s time and be completed by May 2018.