The history of a town will be going into storage as the pop-up museum in Weymouth prepares to close.

Weymouth Museum has announced that its pop-up on St Thomas Street in the town centre will be closing.

Weymouth Museum was in the Brewers Quay building but when the building was sold for development it was forced to find an alternative location. 

The museum trust gained a £99,000 lottery bid for a project called Bridging the Gap to open a pop-up museum in May 2022, to keep a presence in the town until it can return to Brewers Quay.

The lottery money has now run out, which means that the pop-up will be closing.

Marcia Headon, chairman of Weymouth Museum Trust, said: "We were funded by the Heritage Lottery for 12 months and that money has now run out. We just can't justify the rent where we are at the moment. We don't have the money, so it is a simple decision.

"The pop-up was to keep the museum alive in the hearts of Weymouth. It is really important that we keep the museum going. It has been very successful. It has given us an insight into what people want for a museum."

The pop-up will close on Friday, October 27.

Read more: Weymouth's Brewers Quay set to be revived as 'major tourist attraction'

In a statement announcing the closure a spokesperson for Weymouth Museum said: "Thank you to everyone who has visited us or helped in any way.

"In the next months, we will be using alternative venues to provide displays. We will be advertising these venues on Facebook and our website.

"In addition, we will also be carrying on with two exciting projects. These are about developing contemporary collecting with residents and community groups and more

"Work on social history, developing ideas on what's most important in a museum collection.

"We will keep you all up to date about our return to Brewers Quay in due course."

Items displayed at the pop-up will be stored with the other items in the collection at the museum's storage on the Granby Industrial Estate. The digitisation of the collection at the Granby will still be going ahead.

Negotiations are ongoing for tentative plans to hold pop-up displays at Weymouth Pavilion, Weymouth Council Office and the Weymouth Library.

Read more: Schoolchildren curate museum exhibitions on local history