PLANS for Bedale Museum, which stages an exhibition next week on 300 years of local travel and transport, may depend on a meeting with representatives of the National Lottery.

Founded in 1959 and still housed in a cramped room on the ground floor of Bedale Hall, it desperately needs more space to display present exhibits more effectively and take others out of storage.

The extent of new accommodation for the collection of artefacts given by local people hinges, however, on whether the Lottery Heritage Fund is willing to support a project estimated to cost £800,000.

The project, centred on an old garage behind Bedale Hall, is being promoted by the hall management committee and the museum with input from the town council which hopes to incorporate public toilets for people attending events in the hall park.

Last month's planned meeting to discuss the scheme, which would see the museum accommodated on the top floor, was cancelled by the National Lottery, but the committee hopes it can be rearranged soon.

If funding is not forthcoming, an alternative proposal is to move the museum to the morning room just off the ground floor foyer of Bedale Hall.

The main requirements are new showcases, improved lighting and better storage space.

Retired curator Harvey Blogg said: "The morning room is only marginally larger than our existing accommodation, but there are not so many protuberances to get round."

John Noone, chairman of the hall management committee, said: "Everything hinges on this meeting with the Lottery Heritage Fund. It has been cancelled once, and we hope it can be rearranged as soon as possible. We are not prepared to wait 12 months.

"The best option would be to go for the old garage because it is looking terrible now, but if the Lottery decides against it, we have been considering a new museum in the morning room.

"This would bring the museum closer to the front of the hall and be more affordable."

He confirmed that the hall committee had a reserve fund of £100,000 to help with developments.

Next week's exhibition on travel and transport in the area between 1650 and 1950 is held in the lounge of Bedale Hall from 1pm to 5pm on Thursday, all day on Friday until 5.30, and from 9.30 to 12.30 on Saturday.

Photographs, maps and other archive material trace the history of the subject from packhorses, coaches and the proposed canal linking Bedale with the River Swale to the arrival of the railway and modern transport.

A copy of the eighteenth century contract for building the canal, a project killed by rail competition, is included in a special booklet which can be bought by visitors.

The exhibition marks national Museums and Galleries Month and the restoration of passenger services by Wensleydale Railway between Leeming Bar and Leyburn through Bedale.

It coincides with Mr Blogg's retirement as curator after almost four years. He said: "It had got to the stage where the job was getting too much for me, mainly for health reasons, and there was so much paperwork, some of which I didn't think was helping."

His duties will be shared by volunteers and a sub-committee of the hall management committee