A LONG- term project – the installation of a mezzanine gallery – has been completed at Dunster Museum and Doll Collection.

And to celebrate, pupils from Dunster First School, the village WI and members of the local community were invited to prepare and seal a time capsule in the new gallery floor.

They filled and labelled tins and boxes with their thoughts, plans for the future and mementoes of life in 2018 and the time capsules will be opened by the donors and their families on February 8, 2068.

Martin Harborne, chairman of the trustees of Dunster Memorial Hall thanked the Government’s Rural Developments Agency for funding the new floor and lift, and local builders, R E Sherrin & Sons Ltd, and local carpet fitters, Stuarts of Minehead, for all they were doing for the project.

Since 2012, Dunster Memorial Hall has been updated with CCTV, an alarm system, solar panels, a mulit-use toilet and a redecorated Victorian snooker room – and visitor numbers climbed from 1,500 in 2011 over 17,000 last year.

The new gallery will enable the trustees and volunteers to create a new modern museum on the ground floor using interactive technology and the famous Doll Collection will be displayed in improved settings on the new gallery.

This will be accessible by stairs from within the museum and by a new lift at the entrance, which should be installed in March in time for the re-opening at Easter.