Plans to help people discover one of the UK’s best preserved Tudor buildings on Weymouth harbourside have been unveiled.

Members of Weymouth Civic Society, which looks after Tudor House - an early 17th-century building - wish to add more depth to the building’s historic story.

They want to make visits to the house a more interactive experience with visual projections inside, tactile displays and games for people to play.

The Society plans to take visitors through history, showcasing what it was like to live in Weymouth during landmark events like the World Wars, Battle of Trafalgar and English Civil War.

To do so, they are looking for local people to join the committee and for knowledgeable volunteers to take visitors on guided tours of the house.

Chairman of the civic society James Farquharson said: “People have been living here through all the really important national events and they would’ve seen out these windows how it would have impacted the town.

“We’re hoping by the time they’ve left Tudor House they’ve got a broader scope of Weymouth over the years.”

The civic society want to identify people who lived in the house during major events and theme a room around people who occupied the house in each of the last four centuries.

As it stands, the museum is largely dependent on its volunteers explaining the history of the house and the items inside.

This new concept means Tudor House will become “more accessible” and “less reliant on volunteers.”

With this vision, the museum will take a more modern approach.

Mr Farquharson said: “It’ll be a more immersive experience with some visuals projected, games to play, things to touch.

“This is what modern museums are like and we just need to bring Tudor House to that level.”

The cost of the project is expected to be a couple of thousand which Tudor House has earnt over the years and received through donations and even COVID grants.

Mr Farquharson said: “It’s time to spend that money we’ve built up to make it a more interesting experience for visitors."  

The experience will continue to be completely free, even after Tudor House implements its new vision. The Civic Society found that by not charging admissions, they got more people in and received more money in donations.

Mr Farquharson said: “Part of our charitable aims is to deliver Weymouth’s really strong history to more people but to underpin that you need a good museum that is financially stable.”

The project, which is expected to take two years to complete, will likely increase footfall to Tudor House which tallied in at 130-140 people per day post-pandemic.

Anyone who is interested in joining the Tudor House committee can attend a Civic Society meeting from 6.30pm on January, 18 2023 at the Tudor House.