A MUSEUM celebrating one of the country’s oldest and most distinguished regiments has officially reopened after a major redevelopment project.

The Green Howards Museum in Richmond is dedicated to the story of a unit that was first raised more than 300 years ago, in November 1688.

Over the weekend it was at the centre of a series of events to mark its formal reopening after a £1.7m transformation.

The work, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, has seen the building transformed together with the way its extensive collection of military objects and personal items are displayed.

To mark to reopening a green tented camp was created around the museum for most of Saturday and a variety of activities spanning the centuries of the regiment’s story were on offer.

A team of re-enactors gave a glimpse of Army life during the Crimean period, whilst a First World War soldier was on hand to talk about what his life was like 100 years ago.

The Yorkshire Regiment – of which the Green Howards are now part – brought the story right up to date with their display of modern military equipment.

Today, May 10, things moved into more formal mode for the traditional Green Howards Sunday.

Former soldiers gathered for a wreath-laying at the spruced-up memorial at the top of Frenchgate and paraded through the town following a church service.

The Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir Nicholas Houghton, then performed the traditional ribbon-cutting ceremony to declare the museum officially reopen.

Inside the museum a major new exhibition, Changing Spaces: One Building, 1000 years, charts the various uses of the museum building over the centuries; looking at the communities it has served in its many different guises.

The exhibition has been created in partnership with keen volunteer historians from the University of the Third Age.

Altogether the museum boasts a collection of more than 35,000 objects telling the story of the Green Howards, also known as the 19th Regiment of Foot, The Alexandra Princess of Wales’s Own Yorkshire Regiment, during the period 1688 to 2006.

That includes more than 200 uniforms, an array of weapons from daggers to pikes and rifles to machine guns, art work and regimental silver, documents, maps and other military memorabilia, and almost 4,000 medals – including 15 Victoria Crosses and three George Crosses won by former members.