Struggling museum wins lifeline

The doors are to stay open on a struggling agricultural museum which faced an uncertain future thanks to a major redevelopment project.

Cogges Manor Farm Museum, in Witney, Oxfordshire, has been losing money and faced temporary closure.

But county council bosses, who will take its management off West Oxfordshire District Council in April 2005, have pledged to raise investment.

They are to work with the Cogges Trust on a major fundraising campaign.

'Strongly supported'

Private firms will also be encouraged to support the museum, which has been described by its backers as a "national treasure".

The facility, built around an old farmhouse, offers "living history" lessons to schoolchildren and will also be better marketed in the future.

County councillor Neil Fawcett said: "I'm delighted with the decision.

"Cogges is the only museum of its kind in this region and is a major tourist attraction as well as being strongly supported by the local community.

"I believe it is well worth developing to make it even better than it already is and that with improved marketing we can have the kind of impact on visitor figures that we have already seen at the Woodstock Museum and our libraries."

Visitor numbers at the museum were said to have been badly hit by the foot-and-mouth outbreak and a general downturn in the tourism industry.