MORE than 750 people have now signed up to the Swindon Science Museum's online petition - and they include celebrity supporters.

Professor Stephen Hawking and Strictly Come Dancing presenter Tess Daly have added their names to the electronic petition on the Downing Street website.

This comes after the museum in Wroughton was dropped from the Big Lottery's £50m competition at the penultimate stage two weeks ago.

Many people were so infuriated that they are calling for the Inspired Project to be reinstated in the ITV phone vote competition.

Inspired would have seen Europe's largest museum built at the Wroughton site.

The petition creator is Thomas Craigie, who was angry it had missed out on Lottery money.

It is also being backed by comedian Dom Joly, TV presenter Kirsty Gallagher and inventor James Dyson.

TV's Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson is also a supporter of the Science Museum.

The site provides the backdrop for large chunks of his latest DVD.

Museum staff were given a preview of the footage from "upercar Showdown, which is now on sale and expected to be a hit this Christmas.

Part of the DVD was shot in front of the giant hangars in Wroughton.

The TV star and motoring expert said: "For my DVD I travelled the planet - from Spain via Strasbourg to Swindon - for the Supercar Showdown to beat them all."

During the filming in July Science Museum staff gave Clarkson, 47, a tour of the cavernous hangars containing 250,000 objects, which are not on display to the public.

He picked out some of the star objects and said what a "jaw-dropping experience" it was to see things like the Blue Steel missile - Britain's first nuclear missile - which stood in front of a two-stage Polaris rocket.

Clarkson was also impressed by the world's first hovercraft, the mini submarine used in Bond film For Your Eyes Only and an early Hawk jet trainer, lost under the wings of a Comet airliner.

To lodge support for the Science Museum log onto http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ScienceMuseum/?showall=1