A MUCH loved museum has won nearly a quarter of a million pounds to open a bakery and dairy showcasing heritage food production with plans to supply wheat again.

The Weald and Downland Open Air Museum in Singleton is to receive £224,500 to fund the renovation of previously demolished buildings used elsewhere and rebuild them on the site.

The funding from the Museums and Galleries Improvement fund will be used to re-assemble bakery and dairy buildings dismantled in the 1980s, with both buildings relocated to Singleton to showcase heritage food production.

It will enable them to begin the project to reconstruct the two dismantled historic buildings – the Newdigate Bakery near Dorking, Surrey and the Eastwick Park Dairy, also from Surrey.

The museum's marketing assistant Joe Meacher said: “This will show off food production and link with the working building’s history.”

The working buildings already in place in Singleton include a watermill, a medieval shop and a horse whim and open shed.

Components of the previously demolished Newdigate bakery and Eastwick dairy such as the roofing are currently in storage and will be re-used, with the grant also going towards new raw materials for the buildings.

Mr Meacher said: “The ultimate aim is to supply our own wheat."

The dairy in Open Air Theater Road at the museum near Chichester will be used to demonstrate traditional dairy techniques, showcasing Victorian techniques instead of just the Tudor techniques it was using before.

Mr Meacher said that the new buildings are set to re-open in 2018.

The plans are part of a £4million funding boost to 39 museums and galleries and culture centres across the UK with the museum being granted the largest sum of money out of all of those receiving these funds.

Minister for Digital and Culture Matt Hancock said the grants "will make an important contribution toward increasing access to their wonderful collections and improving the visitor experience at museums right across the country."

Other projects receiving funding include the Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums for the first phase of a redevelopment plan of the Arbeia Roman fort in Tyneside, and the ancient Egyptian gallery at Leicester's Arts and Museum Service.

Paul Ramsbottom, CEO of the Wolfson Foundation, said: "From Egyptian mummies in Leicester to a Roman fort on Tyneside, this is a gloriously diverse set of projects - but all demonstrate excellence and all will improve the visitor experience."

Since Wolfson and the DCMS launched the Museums and Galleries Improvement fund in 2001, £44 million has been donated to 382 projects across England.

Mr Ramsbottom said “This is a wonderful example of how a charity and government can work fruitfully together in partnership and we are grateful to government for matching our funding.”