BET you never knew there was so much in it! This cast iron telephone box, pictured, is one of nearly 40,000 items to be moved out of Bury Museum.

Major building work on a new £1.2 million museum and archive centre at the Moss Street site starts on March 1.

The new centre will be created in the lower ground floor, and will incorporate Bury Archives, currently housed in Edwin Street.

Bury Council is paying £300,000 towards the project, with the rest coming from the Heritage Lottery Fund. It will open early next year, and feature combined museum andarchive displays, a learning and research space, an integrated object and manuscript store, and a conservation area.

Visitors will be able to look at displays about the area and then follow-up their interests with research in the learning area. The centre will offer a programme of sessions for schools and other educational groups. The building, which links to the art gallery and central library, will have full disabled access.

Apart from the red cast-iron "Jubilee" phone box, other odd items to be removed include cobbling machinery, several stones, a dentist's chair, a wattle and daub wall, and a lathe.

Mr Ronan Brindley, museums development officer, said that most of the objects would be returned once the centre was complete. Some of the transport-related items have been loaned to the East Lancs Railway museum.

Councillor Siobhan Costello, executive member for community services, said: "This project is a huge boost to the development of cultural services across the borough and to the idea of a dedicated cultural quarter in Bury town centre around the Silver Street area.

"It's an exciting time for everyone involved as the old facility is steadily transformed into the new one over the next few months."