Salisbury Museum is celebrating after being awarded nearly 1.8 million pounds in Heritage Lottery Funding

The money will be used to help the development of  a new interactive gallery which will tell the story of Salisbury and the surrounding area from prehistoric time to the Norman Conquest.

It's thought the donation is one of the biggest single hand outs ever by the Heritage arm of the lottery fund.

Adrian Green is director of the Museum which is based in Cathedral Close

'We are absolutely overjoyed with this news. This project is part of a partnership with English Heritage and Wiltshire Heritage Museum which is developing an integrated approach to the interpretation of Stonehenge. It means we will be able to open new archaeology galleries at Salisbury Museum that relate to the new displays in the Stonehenge Visitor Centre.'

Richard Bellamy, acting Head of Heritage Lottery Fund South West, said:

'The archaeological collection at Salisbury Museum is outstanding, and we at HLF are delighted that we have been able to support this project. The new exhibition gallery will use these key artefacts to open up the history of Salisbury and the local area from Prehistoric times to the Norman conquest so that it can be enjoyed and explored by people from across the community."

Stonehenge Director, Loraine Knowles said:

'English Heritage is delighted that this superb archaeological collection will be re-presented to tell the fascinating story of prehistoric Wessex alongside that of Stonehenge itself".

The total costs of the new gallery will be £2.4 million. Salisbury Museum has raised over £500,000 towards this target  The museum still needs to raise about £ 50,000 but is confident that the gallery will be open by the beginning of 2014.