A PRESTON museum celebrated 25 years of bringing art to the town with a £1 million exhibition along its grand staircase.

Staff at the former County Regimental Museum on Stanley Street, which was renamed The Museum of Lancashire in 1996, brought together the magnificent art collection gathered over the years to display in one area.

The museum also played host to a special ceremony featuring guides dressed as a Victorian school mistress, an air raid warden and a cheese maker.

Around 200 visitors gathered to discuss plans to form a Friends of the Museum of Lancashire which would attract interest in collections and organise fund-raising events and promotions.

Chairman of the museum, county councillor Dorothy Westell, cut a commemorative cake to mark the anniversary.

The forming of a Friends group will be discussed on January 22 when a public meeting will be held at the museum to establish a steering committee and form a draft constitution.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.