Dorset's History Centre is working up a National Lottery Heritage Fund application to pay for an expansion of its archive stores.

The centre, which is based in Dorchester, holds county-wide records including from former Dorset councils which were disbanded in 2019 to create Dorset Council and the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authorities.

A previous application to the Lottery in 2017 was rejected.

The county's Joint Archive Service, which runs the building, has been hoping to build an extension to the Bridport Road building, which two years ago was costed at around £3million.

Dorset Council's Cabinet was told on Tuesday by senior manager Sam Johnston that the current likely costs were being worked on but, if successful, the Lottery funding could meet 60 per cent of the overall cost with BCP and Dorset Council expected to stump up the rest.

The building is now reaching its maximum storage capacity and alternatives which have been looked include renting out specialist storage space in Cheshire and Oxfordshire, estimated to cost at least £10 million over the 60 year (full-life equivalent) of an extension.

The building capacity has been put at around 45,000 boxes with the service receiving around 1,000 boxes of new material annually, boosted more recently by archive material from the former councils.

A report to the advisory panel has in the past recommended adding a two storey extension, over the existing car park, as the most cost-effective option.

The centre was built in 1991 with an anticipated 25-year expansion space. In recent years it has achieved a £200,000 project to make it more energy efficient – by reducing air travel through the walls and better insulation and to provide very limited heating and air exchange.

The nationally recognised service is one of the cheapest to run in the country – in 2019 costing each person in Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole 72 pence per year and now has half the staff it had in 2006.

During the pandemic many of the centre's volunteers started working on projects from home, while others left.

The centre says it will shortly be recruiting further volunteers now that Covid restrictions have been lifted.