TAVISTOCK Museum Charitable Trust is celebrating, after being told it is one of three local winners, receiving a grant of £6,275 from Natwest.

Natwest launched Community Force, a new initiative to help support local charities and community organisations publicise their work and attract volunteers, last summer. The programme has also provided the opportunity for three groups in each of the 131 Community Force banking areas to receive grants.

More than 5,000 eligible charities and community organisations in England and Wales applied to take part in 2011, and last autumn an on-line public vote took place to decide which three groups in each banking area should receive awards.

Tavistock Museum received 159 votes of support, placing it third in this banking area.

Roderick Martin, secretary to the Tavistock Museum Charitable Trust, said: 'We have been overwhelmed by the level of support shown for Tavistock Museum and we are grateful to Natwest for their generous support of local community projects.

'This is a huge windfall for a small community group like ours.

'The Museum Trust wishes to thank everyone who voted for us in this very exciting and keenly-fought competition. Our congratulations go to Bude Open Air Sea Pool (359 votes) and Universal Beat Group, Bude (188 votes) who were also winners in our banking area.'

Gay Bassett said: 'Natwest were delighted to support such a worthy cause for Tavistock.'

Tavistock Museum is open approximately 200 days each year from Easter Saturday until the end of October, and receives approximately 4,500 visitors annually. It is run entirely by volunteers, some of whom give up to a day each week of their time to help.

There are currently 30 volunteers involved with stewarding, a task that will appeal to anyone who has an interest in the town and its history.

There are also ten volunteers involved with the cataloguing and digitising the photographic collections which requires an additional interest in computers.

The money from the grant will be put towards new storage for our collections and new facilities for our stewards.

Tavistock Museum re-opens on Easter Saturday, April 7.

This year there will be a special exhibition to celebrate 350 years of England's national puppet, Mr Punch, as well as more local exhibitions about the 'Old Folks Rest Room in Duke Street' and the Devonshire Association.