Lottery Grant Brings Hope for Reopening of Kettering’s Storm-Damaged Museum
A museum in Kettering that has sat shuttered for three years has been given a boost toward reopening, after North Northamptonshire Council secured a National Lottery Heritage Fund award worth £196,896.
The money will let the council appoint a collections manager — on a three-year fixed-term contract — to oversee the day-to-day care of Manor House Museum’s collection, while a new masterplan is drawn up to guide the building’s longer-term future.
Councillor Greg Wilcox, the council’s Reform UK executive member for communities and rural affairs, called the funding “a hugely important step” after what he described as persistent local questions about the museum’s fate. “This grant will help provide a strong foundation for the future – the project will protect heritage assets and rebuild the site, ensuring resilience for many years to come,” he said, adding that it would allow the council “to plan for the future, while preserving the town’s history.”
The museum, along with the town’s art gallery, library and gardens, had been grouped under the shared name Cornerstone since 2022, before reverting this year to their original separate identities. The gallery and museum both closed after heavy rain damaged the roof in October 2023; the library has since reopened, and a roughly £4.8m restoration project launched in June 2025 means the art gallery is due to welcome visitors back later this month.
The museum itself, however, remains closed. Surveys uncovered extensive structural problems that the council says cannot be solved quickly: “These issues do not have a quick and easy fix,” it said, warning that “the fabric of the building has deteriorated to the point that it is unsafe to open to the public.”
Council leader Martin Griffiths acknowledged the scale of work ahead: “We know the museum is in need of a lot of work and this funding will enable us to come up with a plan for this important heritage building and look at next steps.” The masterplan is expected to take about a year to finalise, after which residents will be given a timeline for reopening.
A council spokeswoman said the authority understood the museum’s importance to the community: “We know how much Kettering’s museum means to local people, and we want to see it back open as soon as possible. Before then, there is a lot of work to do: setting a clear direction for the museum, getting to know our collections in detail, and designing a space that does them justice.”
Source: BBC News