A GROUP of volunteers stepped in to prevent Llangollen museum's artefacts from being damaged by rainwater pouring in from a defective roof.

Llangollen Tidy Town members carefully moved dozens of items, including some 4,000-year-old Bronze Age bones and a Bible dating back two centuries, to a safe temporary home in a storage area at the old courthouse just across Parade Street on Monday morning (January 23).

The salvage operation was necessary because the vaulted roof in the 50-year-old circular museum building is now in such a dire state that worried trustees say completely replacing it has become the only option.

But to secure grant aid for the work they are first aiming to acquire the building from its present owners, Denbighshire County Council, from whom they have been renting the former Llangollen Library for the past 20 years.

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Museum trustee David Crane said: “We’ve been having major problems with the roof for some time but things have recently become much worse due to all the heavy rain.

“Water has been building up on the roof and then pouring in through one of the skylights which surround the roof.

“A roofing expert who looked at it for us said the roof was like a swimming pool and would cost more to keep on repairing than having the whole thing replaced.

“Another problem with the way the place is designed is that the drains from the roof run inside the building rather than on the outside.”

He added: “We have had to look at a number of options, including moving out of this building. But finding somewhere else to go and then moving our entire collection would not be easy.

“We have therefore come up with a plan to buy the building from the county council and at the same time apply for grant aid to cover the cost of renewing the roof.

“We estimate that the purchase and roof renewal would cost in the region of £130,000-£150,000 in total.

“We are hopeful of being able to get external funding but if we aren’t successful the only thing left would be to close the museum, which means the town would lose a very valuable asset.”

The Tidy Town Team, led by David Davies, formed a human chain to move a large number of boxes containing exhibits from two storerooms on the museum’s upper floor, which are most at risk of water damage, just across the road to the old courthouse.