PLANS to restore an historic garden at Dovery Manor Museum, in Porlock, have been given a substantial financial boost.

The museum’s garden volunteers received a cheque for £250 from the proceeds of the village’s annual carnival events.

The cheque was handed over by Porlock Carnival Committee chairman Phil Weaver.

The museum plans to restore an historic garden which was once stocked with a range of traditional medicinal plants and shrubs, reflecting museum’s origins as a 15th century manor house.

It is the latest in a number of voluntary bodies in the village to be supported through Porlock’s carnival.

Porlock is the last village on Exmoor still to hold a regular carnival procession, the first one taking place in 1978 as part of the late Queen’s silver jubilee, and then becoming an annual event in 1986.

The village is filled for one special day each year with an extravagant and colourful procession of decorated floats and lively street performers.

Money raised from donations is later distributed to charities, organisations, and other worthy causes in the village.

This year’s carnival will be held on Saturday, September 6, with family entertainment from 4.30 pm and the procession starting at 6 pm.

Dovery Manor Museum is a not-for-profit charitable organisation run by a group of enthusiastic volunteers who offer free entry and aim to provide an insight into the Exmoor village of Porlock and nearby communities.

It currently has an exhibition running until the end of October on Ada Lovelace, who lived locally in the 1830s and is recognised as the world’s first ‘computer programmer’.

The exhibition reveals for the first time the village’s true significance in the life of the early Victorian mathematical visionary.

It explores both the scientific work she pursued while living there, and her significant impact on the grounds and woodlands surrounding Ashley Combe.