A cash grant to help create a new permanent exhibition at Keighley's Cliffe Castle Mus-eum has been announced.

The Wolfson Foundation has agreed to give the museum £50,000 to help support the new exhibition - called Working Landscapes.

The exciting new development has already been backed with a £208,000 grant from the National Heritage Lottery Fund, £35,000 from Keighley's Single Regeneration Budget, £6,000 from the Friends of Cliffe Castle and £4,000 from the museum's trustees.

Cllr Barry Thorne, chairman of Bradford council's leisure services sub-committee, which is responsible for the museum, is delighted at the news.

"They have offered us £50,000 towards the realisation of the scheme for which we have been working for so long," he says. "The people of Keighley and its visitors will have new facilities worthy of the new millennium.

"Over £300,000-worth of new money has so far been brought to Keighley for this project. We still have a little way to go with the fundraising, but I anticipate the work will start this summer."

Cllr Thorne adds that the Working Landscapes project will transform Cliffe Castle into a major attraction for local people and visitors, with two new display galleries and new education facilities. "It will be a celebration of the Aire Valley and its natural and historic heritage," he says.

The new exhibition will use local collections to help tell the story of the Aire and Wharfe valleys and how they have developed over the centuries. The new gallery will be set in the context of the local landscape and its geological resources.

The ground floor of the museum will be extensively refurbished to provide impr-oved access. The new displays will also have low-level display cases for children and wheelchair users, and braille and audio loops for blind and deaf visitors.

The Wolfson Foundation and the Wolfson Family Charitable Trust established the Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund in partnership with the government in 1990. Its objective is to contribute towards the renovation and improvement of museums and galleries. It works closely with the Nat-ional Heritage Lottery Fund.

Cliffe Castle is open to the public six days a week, with no charge for entry. And with its surrounding parks and aviaries, it is said to be one of the best free days out in the country.

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