Bradford's showpiece industrial museum is set to undergo a revamp after being awarded an £88,000 lottery grant.

The money from Heritage Lottery Fund will be used to create a new gallery and refurbish existing display galleries at the museum in Eccleshill.

The work is part of a three-year community education scheme called the Powerhouse Project.

Yorkshire Electricity started the ball rolling with a £10,000 donation which allowed an application to be submitted for the lottery grant.

The project starts in the spring with the appointment of a full-time education officer.

He or she will oversee the development of the Powerhouse education programme which focuses on four key areas:

1 Domestic Power - will examine the origins of domestic power since Victorian times using the museum's terraced cottages.

2 Word Power - a literacy development project including the creation of a Big Book on local history to be given to every Bradford primary school in Year Two of the scheme.

3 Horse Power - will use the museum's Horses at Work and its staff to visit schools and encourage the study of Victorian transport.

4 People Power - a community history project about Bradford's history to be displayed in the new gallery.

Next year the museum's first floor textiles galleries will be made more user-friendly with more information boards and 'feely boxes' to give a more hands-on approach. And in 2002 a new £5,000 gallery will replace the Magic Machines display on the ground floor and volunteers trained to carry on the work of the project.

Bradford Council's principal officer for art galleries and museums Steve Kerry said the Yorkshire Electricity grant had been the catalyst in getting the Heritage money.

He said: "It's the sort of project we couldn't have possibly have achieved on our own as finances are so short."

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