TUCKED down a side street, Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery would be easy to overlook or miss entirely.

But following its £500,000 refurbishment, just walking by would be little short of a travesty.

As well as showing off the best in local art and objects, the displays will take you much further afield and you are sure to spend a few fun hours in there.

There are three new galleries, including the Skill and Labour -- Arte et Labore, the town's Latin motto -- section which contains contain hundreds of objects from the museum's social history collections.

Instead of using labels, interpretation is provided by touch-screen interactive, audio and video.

Displays are arranged around seven characters, including the self-made man, a female cotton worker and a rabble rouser, a 19th century rioter who fought against wage cuts, lock-outs and new technology at local mills.

The characters are each represented by a life-size figure made by Lucy Casson, one of the country's best-known craftspeople, who is based in London.

Each figure is surrounded by objects which tell their life story.

On the first floor, the Hart Gallery contains medieval manuscripts and private press books from the Edward Hart collection, named after the son of a wealthy Blackburn industrialist who donated his items to Blackburn before he died in 1946. Highlights include a page from the world-famous Gutenberg Bible, one of the oldest in the world, and a copy of the Kelmscott Chaucer, another rare book.

Lavishly-decorated Persian manuscripts and Islamic texts are also on display, while new space has been created to show changing displays from the museum's extensive collection of Japanese prints and icon paintings, as well rare coins and medals. These include Blackburn FA Cup medals, the only Victoria Cross won at Dunkirk -- by Marcus Ervine-Andrews, a captain in the East Lancashire Regiment -- and a collection of early Greek coins from the sixth century BC. The centrepiece of the gallery is a suit of Japanese armour.

On the mezzanine floor of the Hart Gallery visitors are able to see objects from around the world, brought back by Blackburn travellers in the 19th century. Many of these have not been seen for decades and they range from Chinese textiles and ceramics to Peruvian artefacts from the year 400, Maori weapons and trade goods made by the Inuits of North America.

Blackburn Museum, in Museum Street, is open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am-4.45pm and admission is free.