A city centre museum is hoping for more visitors thanks to almost £50,000 worth of funding.

The grant is the largest that has been awarded to the Museum of Oxford’s exhibition since it opened in 1975.

The museum, based at Oxford Town Hall, in St Aldate’s, was awarded £48,628 from Waste Recycling Environmental Ltd (WREN), a not-for-profit business that awards grants to community projects.

Exhibits at the museum tell the history of the city from prehistoric times to the present day.

The new cash will help fund the Oxford Town Hall Galleries project, a new two-room exhibition space on the ground floor of the Town Hall.

Councillor Bob Price, leader of Oxford City Council, said the project forms a vital role in increasing the number of visitors to the museum.

He said: “The project will transform the exhibition space in a really exciting way.

“The Museum of Oxford has changed very little since it was opened in 1975 and this project will bring it up to date and make it more exciting.”

The Town Hall Galleries will initially be concentrated in two large rooms on the ground floor of the hall and the entrance to the museum will be relocated from the corner of Blue Boar Street to the Town Hall lobby.

It is part of a larger development programme that will see changes to the cafe, shop and education area, and is the result of several years of consultation with visitors, residents, museum staff and heritage specialists.

The project will be partially funded by Oxford City Council with the WREN grant covering the cost of converting the rooms into museum space and providing new and renovated display cases for museum objects.

Vanessa Lea, museum operations officer at the Museum of Oxford, said: “The money goes towards a much bigger project to develop the Town Hall and bring the museum galleries to a much wider range of people.

“It is an exciting time for the museum as it changes and develops for future generations.”

The museum is open Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday between 10am and 5pm.