ROSSENDALE Museum is celebrating its centenary this year and the news that it was to close came as a hammer blow to those involved with it.

Curator Sandra Cruise said she was horrified that the facility would be closing down.

She added: "This has come as an awful shock and it is ironic that the closure has come in our centenary year. Hopefully we will be able to salvage something from our lottery bid.

"It is such a great shame that something like the museum which provides such an important resource for the community in terms of events and education can be closed."

Chair of the Friends of Rossendale Museum, in Whitaker Park, Tom Fisher, added: "I am absolutely gutted at the news. I would have thought the council would be able to find a way around the problems without closing facilities, that is the easy option. I am very disappointed."

Geoff Jackson, of the Rossendale Amateur Operatic Society which uses the hall below the Astoria in Rawtenstall, said: "The news is not unexpected and we won't have a problem finding somewhere else to perform, but we have got a huge amount of gear that will need to be moved."

John Wood, caretaker at the AB and D Centre in Bacup which holds events for groups like the elderly and blind and disabled support groups, said: "This is a real shock. Ninety per cent of the people that use the centre are elderly and this will come as real blow to them."

Dave Mangham, of the Rossendale youth society, which has used Haslingden Hall for ten years, said this year's production of Annie, involving 35 local schoolchildren, was now under threat.

He added: "I just wonder what brave soul is going to tell those children, who have worked so hard over the last months that all their hard work is down the drain. This is very disappointing news."