Museum given £4.8m gallery boost

Work on the gallery will begin early in 2010

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery has been given £4.8m to set up a gallery showing the history of the city.

Council chiefs said the Heritage Lottery Fund cash would make the £9.7m "Birmingham - A City in the Making" exhibition possible.

Work on the gallery is expected to start early next year with an opening date set for autumn 2012.

More than 40,000 visitors visited the museum earlier this year to see the Staffordshire Hoard.

The collection of the Anglo-Saxon treasures has now been sent to experts at the British Museum in London to be valued.

'Unique collection'

However, a campaign has been started to keep the gold permanently in the West Midlands.

Birmingham City Council leader Mike Whitby said winning the new grant was "excellent news".

He said: "This exciting project will tell the story of Birmingham's great global story to both local people and visitors, keeping a fascinating period of our history alive for generations to come.

"We're talking about a unique collection of objects dating from 1500 to the present day. The collection represents our manufacturing tradition, the diverse communities found here in Birmingham and the continuing growth of our great city."

The rest of the funding for the project is coming from other agencies including Advantage West Midlands.