A multi-million pound facelift of one of Oxford’s most popular museums is nearing completion.

Oxford University’s Pitt Rivers Museum, in Parks Road, has been closed since last July for work costing up to £8m.

The museum will reopen to the public on May 1.

Visitors will discover a new entrance has been built and an education area has been created.

Hundreds of rare artefacts from around the globe have been cleaned and restored.

Museum director Dr Michael O’Hanlon said: “We are grateful to the generous supporters who have allowed us to restore the Pitt Rivers’ entrance from the Natural History Museum, provide new displays and enhance our education provision.

“When we reopen on May 1, our hundreds and thousands of visitors will be able to enjoy the new facilities at this wonderful museum.”

The new entrance platform will boast wide steps leading down into the Museum of Natural History with shops and reception areas to the side.

The museum hopes it will also improve access for wheelchair users and parents with pushchairs.

The 40-year-old exhibition gallery at the entrance has been dismantled and replaced with two new matching columns specially cast to support the balcony.

A new education area has been created among the displays on the first floor.

Many of the museums’ cases have been moved and restored to their original positions.

A five-strong Heritage Lottery-funded team has decanted, condition-checked and then replaced thousands of artefacts from 40 cases, which include curiosities from four corners of the globe, such as shrunken heads from South America, They have also moved dozens of large pieces, including boats and statues.

The Upper Gallery will stay closed to the public for a further 12 months as renovation continues.

The museum holds about half a million objects, of which some 80,000 are on display at any one time. It is visited by 200,000 visitors a year.

It was founded by General Pitt Rivers in 1884 who gave his personal collection of 20,000 items to the university on the condition that a museum was built to house them.

The museum still needs more money to complete the renovations.

For more information, see www.prm.ox.ac.uk.

mwilkinson@oxfordmail.co.uk