SWINDON'S community-run Richard Jefferies Museum is one of just four heritage projects across the country to be shortlisted for the best community action project in the 2016 Historic England Angel Awards.

Founded by Andrew Lloyd Webber, the awards celebrate the efforts of people taking action to champion their local heritage.

Based on Marlborough Road, the museum is also eligible for an overall award which will be decided by votes from the public.

The award is in recognition of the campaign to save the museum from threat of closure, and make it into an exciting, vibrant place for the local community.

Mike Pringle,the museum’s manager, volunteer , said: ‘We can’t believe we have been chosen as one of only four community projects. It is very exciting, and such a pat-on-the-back for the dedicated team of volunteers who have slogged their guts out over recent years, following in the footsteps of the Richard Jefferies Society.

"It’s also really important for Swindon, acknowledging that we really do have a rich heritage here, that is starting to be revived. And rightly so."

To help the judges and the public decide who will win, Historic England has visited to make a short film about the museum which will be available online soon. Showing the true spirit of community, the place was heaving as the camera rolled, with dozens of parents and small children in Lego Lounge, students from St Joseph’s college exploring Bevis’ world, and thirty volunteers from Thames Water helping out in the gardens.

Richard Jefferies was a Victorian writer with a passion for the countryside and the richness of nature he saw around him. He was

born at the farmhouse at Coate on November 6, 1848, and died at the age of 38 in 1887. He produced a huge array of literary

works, including detailed accounts of his beloved countryside and its people, essays, novels, children’s books, articles for local and national press.

He has been compared with the great English nature writer, Gilbert White.

With two volunteers becoming qualified Arts Award Advisors, the museum now has regular children’s writing and drawing events, adult writing classes, sculptures, poetry, celebrity writer workshops, and student art projects.

The awards ceremony will be held at the Palace Theatre, London, on October, 31.

Vote for the museum at: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/FTZPDGC