A BROMSGROVE open air museum is celebrating after receiving a three year grant.

Arts Council England has awarded a grant of £346,221 to Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings.

The grant has been allocated from Arts Council England's Museum Resilience Fund, which is aimed at supporting cultural and heritage organisations, and to pursue development opportunities to make them more sustainable.

The money is being used to support the Stoke Heath-based museum's new project Avoncroft: going forward to excellence.

Avoncroft will be able to stage regular demonstrations in its industrial, residential and agricultural buildings, develop stronger links with the local community, and diversify its income streams - including producing its own stone-ground flour from its iconic 19th century windmill.

Money would be put to recruiting and training a larger volunteer workforce, including young volunteers, who will be able to act as demonstrators in the buildings and generate new projects centred on the museum’s domestic houses.

The grant would be spent on developing the museum's period garden to reflect the homes they were associated with, and to use them to provide seasonal produce.

It will also provide themed exploration and play areas for younger children to complement the museum's existing play area, and encourage investigation of the buildings.

The museum will be working with historians to research and understand the museum's historic buildings and provide a series of learning courses for the public in traditional rural crafts, heritage skills and traditional domestic and agricultural techniques.

Peter Knott, area director from Arts Council England, said: "In the current economic climate it is really important for cultural organisations to be resilient and sustainable businesses.

"Avoncroft offers people the chance to explore buildings which otherwise would have been lost to the public, and it will be great to see this investment support the museum to find new ways to make the most of its collection to attract new visitors and increase opportunities to generate income.”

Simon Carter, Avoncroft Museum's director, said: "This award is hugely important to Avoncroft as it will ensure we can continue to develop new ways of making the museum self-funding.

"We’re incredibly proud that we’ve continued to grow as an organisation throughout the recession and we are always looking at ways to generate income to support the museum’s costs.

"This award will enable us to unlock much of the potential we are able to see and to involve more people in the project to make our part of Worcestershire a destination for visitors from across the country."