Narberth Museum's plans to restore the Bonded Stores in Church Street as a new state-of-the-art home for the community facility have taken a few steps forward this autumn.

The building, which has been empty for five years, has now been completely re-roofed.

This was essential because the deterioration of the roof was jeopardising the building and now ensures the project can move forward.

Funded in part by Cadw and Pembrokeshire County Council, work began in September and has progressed well.

However, while the building now has a sound slate roof, there is still a lot of conversion work both inside and out to be done, but firstly the all-important funding needs to be achieved to pay for it.

The trustees plan to submit a first stage application to the Heritage Lottery Fund this month.

If successful, the money awarded to the scheme will help pay off the rest of the building work and fitting out the inside and its facilities which will include plenty of space for permanent and temporary exhibition space, a cafe, bookshop, education suite and research facilities for family and local history.

All this work is now being overseen by project organiser, Geraldine Delaney.

With the help of a grant from CyMAL: Museums, Archives and Libraries Wales at the Welsh Assembly Government, the trustees appointed Geraldine in August.

Geraldine has a lot of experience in this sector and has previously worked for four years as Development Officer Wales for the Association of Preservation Trusts.

In this role she has advised and helped many similar groups to access funding and restore historic buildings.

The trustees are confident that, with Geraldine as part of the team, the project will now make good progress towards getting the museum up and running again.

"Narberth museum has always enjoyed a good level of support from individuals and organisations within the town," said curator Pauline Griffiths this week.

"We would now like to receive letters of support detailing the contribution the museum has made to the community from as many of them as possible, as this will help with our funding applications," she explained.

Letters can be sent to Mrs. Griffiths at Narberth Museum Bookshop, 11 Market Street, Narberth.