Work could soon start on a museum expansion.

Beaminster Museum has submitted plans to demolish its annex roof and chimney to build a two-storey rear extension.

The plans will go before Beaminster Town Council on Monday.

Beaminster Museum started life 25 years ago as a group of volunteers who wanted to boost tourism and tell the story of their town and surrounding villages.

A quarter of a century on, it’s so successful that plans are in place to expand the building to accommodate its exhibitions and artefacts.

As well as a two-storey extension, proposals include plans to cut a doorway into the north wall of the building to become entrance doorways into the first floor of the new build.

The main aim of the expansion project, according to the museum, is to provide more space for a range of museum activities - including exhibitions, study and storage - from the unused yard at the back of the building.

To prevent the new extension covering the facade of the rear of the museum building, the museum would like to see a glass section over the existing annex so the whole of the back façade of the museum building will be visible to all visitors from the new extension.

Speaking to the News earlier this year, the museum’s Colin Bowditch said it was the ‘right time’ to look at expanding the building.

He said the museum wants to display the heritage of Beaminster - and the neighbouring villages of Netherbury, Broadwindsor, Stoke Abbott and Thorncombe - and to show the artefacts, stories, history of the town and villages and, to do that properly, the museum would need extra space.

The museum has a number of permanent exhibitions, with other collections featured in new exhibitions each year to keep the offering fresh. All have a focus on local history.