Museum items to be unveiled as a £3.7m facility gets set to open to public

A treasure trove of museum items is to be unveiled in Renfrewshire as a £3.7million storage unit prepares to opens its doors.

Paisley: The Secret Collection will house tens of thousands of items from Renfrewshire's collections in a purpose-built publicly-accessible storage unit in a former retail property.

The UK City of Culture 2021 contender will find out in early December whether it will be the first town to win the prestigious title by the UK Government's Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

The collection includes some of Paisley's world-famous textiles, plus a mix of ceramics, world cultures, social history, art and sculpture, natural history and local archives,

It is believed to be the first of its type located on a High Street which hopes to increase footfall in the area.

A dedicated decant team are expected complete the first phase of a major project by the end of this year.

Councillor Lisa-Marie Hughes, chairwoman of Renfrewshire Leisure, which will operate the storage unit, said: `It's called Paisley: The Secret Collection for a reason because it will house some amazing items the people of Paisley and Renfrewshire will never have known were in their midst.

`The timing of the opening is fitting, with a decision due on the town's UK City of Culture 2021 bid very soon - the bid aims to tell Paisley's untold story and show why we matter to Scotland, the UK and the world, and this facility helps showcase why that is.

`The museum store is also key to the council's wider plan to revitalise Paisley's town centre by using our unique selling points to attract visitors and give people new reasons to come into the town.'