Calne Heritage Centre is now fully funded thanks to a £26,300 grant from the lottery.

The Heritage Lottery Fund has granted the museum funds to pay the final construction and running costs.

Chairman of the Heritage Trust, Coun Tony Trotman said he was delighted with the news.

The museum looks set to open at the end of August in the Carnegie Building, the former town library in The Strand.

Plans to build the centre have been in the pipeline for ten years and work finally started on the building in April after a £24,000 grant was secured from the district council.

A total of £48,000 will be spent on building work inside the historic property to create the centre.

Plans for the centre include 26 themes connected with Calne, including artefacts and photographs. "We plan to link together the opening of the heritage centre with the anniversary of the laying of the first stone of the building in 1904," said Coun Trotman.

In 2000, a petition containing 1,836 signatures and more than 60 letters opposed the sale of the building and supported the idea of creating a heritage centre. The overwhelming public support helped persuade the Charities Commission to reconsider the sale.

It ruled that Wiltshire County Council could sell the library to Calne Town Council and the town council agreed to charge the trust a peppercorn rent for the use of the building. The museum will be open five days a week and will be staffed by a group of volunteers.