THE ASSOCIATION of Independent Museums (AIM) has awarded Wotton Heritage Centre a grant of £6,000.

The money will go towards improving the external appearance and entrance of the building.

"We are very pleased," said Mary George, of Wotton Heritage Centre. "It's such a lot of money. It will go a long way to making the Heritage Centre more attractive from the outside and we will be able to reorganise both the tourist information and souvenir shop. There's so much in here it deserves to be noticed."

A new exhibition entitled The Past in the Present' has recently gone on show to the public at the centre.

The display has been compiled in conjunction with National Archaeology Week, running from this Saturday until Sunday, July 20, to tie in with other events happening around the country.

"It's not archaeology in the sense of going round and digging things up," said Mary.

"It's about history all around us. As you go around Wotton there's so much to see, but we all get used to it.

"Door knockers and candlesticks are just a couple of antique items that are still in use today. Everything from horseshoes to shears have their origins rooted in the past.

"One of the rolling pins on display used to belong to my grandmother, and you can see that the modern ones haven't changed at all, really."