TENBY Museum and Art Gallery has received a £5,000 National Lottery boost to help address the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic.

The museum, the oldest independent museum in Wales, has received the support to enable a currently-furloughed member of staff to work from home on the important job of cataloguing collections.

The money will also be used to purchase remote monitoring equipment to help control the humidity and temperature levels in the galleries during the extended period of closure.

Museum trustee Kathy Talbot said: “Thanks to the National Lottery and its players we can now keep doing this important work and also continue to employ our valuable staff.

“We’re grateful that the National Lottery Heritage Fund is supporting us at this crucial time. It’s a real help to us and others who are passionate about sustaining heritage for the benefit of us all.

“This is the first time in over 140 years that the museum has had to close. Even during two World Wars it remained open to serve the community.”

Curator Mark Lewis, who has not been furloughed, said: “This grant allows us to release our museum assistant from furlough and allow her to document our collections, which in time will increase public accessibility to our wonderful and varied collections.

“This is a critical time for heritage and such funding will help us protect it.”

The fundingwas awarded through the National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Heritage Emergency Fund.

£50 million has been made available to provide emergency funding for those most in need across the heritage sector.

Thanks to National Lottery players, £30 million is raised every week for good causes, including heritage of local and national importance.

By playing The National Lottery, people up and down the country are making an amazing contribution to the nation-wide-response to combating the impact of Covid-19 across the United Kingdom.