A museum is able to plan for the future with greater security after its five-year lease was renewed.

Three Rivers Museum, whose home is in Basing House in Rickmansworth, has renewed its lease from Three Rivers District Council until June 2026.

Museum chairman Fabian Hiscock said: “This is very good news. Basing House is an excellent base for us and we’ve been here since 1988, but until five years ago the arrangements were rather short-term. We’re very grateful to Three Rivers District Council for continuing this longer-term facility.”

The theme of the museum is ‘telling the story of what it was like to live and work around here’ across all the Three Rivers area.

The renewed lease means the museum team, all volunteers, can now proceed with their development plans, which include a new digital display and a refreshed interior.

This summer the museum is running a photographic competition, ‘That’s Old’, for children and young people under 18, with cash prizes for photographs of anything ‘old’ in Three Rivers.

The competition closes on September 1. Entry forms and further information is available from the museum or its website www.trmt.org.uk.

The museum received more good news when its secretary Ann Vernau, who fulfils the same role for the Rickmansworth Historical Society, gained a Personal Achievement award from the British Association for Local History for her work of more than 20 years.

Later this year the museum will join the work on the community project Reawaken, expressing people’s lockdown experiences in a multi-media and dance production due to open in the spring of 2022.

Three Rivers Museum is currently open on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 2pm to 4pm, and on Saturdays from 10am to 2pm.