A Warwick military museum is set to close for around five months for refurbishment after winning a lottery award of £214,000.

The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers Museum (Warwick Regiment) has been planning for the refurbishment for around four years and has now been granted vital funding.

The museum, which is based in St John’s House, Warwick houses a collection of artefacts and books relating to the Warwickshire Fusiliers, right through from 1674 to the present day.

They originally applied for the grant last year but their application was deferred until they were granted an extended lease for the building, which they now have.

Museum curator Major Richard Mills admits that everyone is delighted with the news and is hopeful that work will begin shortly.

He said:

"We have definitely got the award but we need to sign contracts and agree to certain things which is understandable when you are talking about this amount of money.

"We applied for 64% finding for a full refurbishment of the museum and that is what we have been granted which is superb.

"The other money was raised through a variety of events and programmes which began in 1996 when this idea was first raised.

"We will now be contacting the contractors and depending on when they can start we hope the work will be underway very shortly.

"From the time it begins it will be around a five month project and we would hope the museum to be open again by the end of this year."

The main fabric of the Grade II listed building will be kept but Major Mills admitted that it was impossible to continue the way it was.

He said:

"Three of our rooms still had electricity sockets made for round plugs so we could not have any power in those rooms."

The museum is now one of four such establishments in the country after a quarter of regiments joined together in 1968 to form a consortium.