Shaftesbury Museum to extend into cottage next door
The Sun and Moon shop will become part of the Gold Hill venue
A Shaftesbury cottage is to be converted into an extension for the town museum allowing more exhibition space, an office and sales area.
Dorset Council has granted consent for the conversion of Sun and Moon Cottage at 1 Gold Hill, the street made famous by a TV bread advert.
The Shaftesbury and District Historical Society want to use the Grade 2 listed shop for an extension to their existing Gold Hill Museum – a move which will mainly involve only internal alterations to the 65 square metre premises.
The building, adjacent to the Town Hall and Church, backs onto the museum building.
It was once a priest’s house, later becoming the Sun and Moon Inn and has been used as a shop.
Museum trustees now want to use the cottage as part of the museum, allowing an expansion of display and storage areas with a dedicated office and shop area.
A new access will be created from the main museum building to the ground floor of Sun and Moon Cottage, which will also allow for disabled access between the buildings.
Some internal ventilation work will have to be undertaken as part of the conversion to deal with dampness in the cottage on a wall adjoining St Peter’s Church.
The Museum which opened as the Town Museum in 1957, was renamed the Gold Hill Museum following refurbishments in 2011 and last year attracted 18,600 visitors.