The 200 runners of Swindon running group Shin Splints have a new home at the Richard Jefferies Museum after the two community-run groups agreed that the venue would be a perfect place for the runners to set off from.

From now on, the group’s Saturday morning and Wednesday afternoon runs will start from and end at the museum, taking advantage of the beautiful gardens and enjoying tea, toast and cakes in the summer sunshine – having put the work in on the route.

Shin Splints organiser Stephen Goulding said: “We have been running from the Sun next door for six years, and they have done us proud, but we always felt we were imposing on the customers, leaving our stuff there and coming back hot and sweaty.

“The museum, with its gardens and everything else gives us a place which we can think of more as our home. When we tried it out, the runners were unanimous, with all of them saying how much they loved the place.”

As a community-run organisation, Shin Splints is not an official club, just a group of local people who offer a welcome to anyone who wants to run – from absolute beginners to Swindon Half Marathon winners – and there are no fees to pay.

Mike Pringle, manager of the Richard Jefferies Museum, said: “The ‘Splinters’ are all voluntary, just like us, so to have them at the museum at times when the place would otherwise be closed is a fantastic win-win situation.

“And it’s another group of people who will start finding out more about Richard Jefferies and Swindon’s amazing history.”

Shin Splints runs from the museum, at Coate Water, on Saturdays at 9am and Wednesday evenings at 6.30pm.

To join in, simply turn up half an hour earlier than those times.

For more information visit www.gouldings.wixsite.com/swindon-shin-splints

The Shin Splints move comes after the community-run museum announced it had received £55,000 Arts Council England funding to kick start a £100,000, 18-month programme of arts and heritage activities.

The project, including two poetry festivals for the town, will start this summer and aims to reach under fives, young people in and out of school, families, adults and elders.

The project, called Arts@Jefferies, will produce what the organisers hope will be an engaging 18-month arts programme at the museum that not only connects new and existing audiences to the museum collections and life of Richard Jefferies, but also introduces many people to the broader arts through innovative and relevant ways.