£2.7m National Lottery award will help museum purchase privately held ‘significant Welsh football collection’

A “privately held ‘significant Welsh football collection” is set to be purchased as part of the Wrexham Museum refurb as part of a £2.7 million National Lottery funding boost.

The ‘Museum of Two Halves’ will include a fully refurbished and enhanced Wrexham Museum in the current building, alongside a brand-new National Football Museum in Wales.

According to Wrexham Council the funding boost, made possible by National Lottery players, means the museum can go ahead with the purchase of a significant Welsh football collection previously held in a private collection.

This includes an “unrivalled collection of material” relating to Cardiff City’s 1927 FA Cup final victory and an “impressive variety” of Wales men’s international match programmes, the earliest dated 1901.”

Wrexham Council say that 90 per cent of the collection is of national and international significance, with one quarter of the items being considered particularly rare or unique in nature, including John Charles’ debut shirt for Wales v Ireland from March 1950, and a cap awarded to Billy Meredith, a pioneer of Welsh football, having played for both Manchester City and Manchester United alongside Wales, and retired aged 50

We asked Wrexham Council if the funding was ‘new’, on top of existing stated budgets or already part of expected funding, and where it fitted in the overall project.

We also invited an update on the current progress of the project.

Cllr Paul Roberts, Lead member for Partnerships and Community Safety, replied: “National Lottery Heritage Fund grants have two competitive stages – a development stage which enables applicants to work on their project proposal, and then a delivery stage.

“Today’s announcement relates to the successful award of £2.7 million for our delivery stage.

“We were previously awarded £45,000 as a development stage grant.

“We are already on-site and work is underway and on schedule.

“The museum will be closed to the public for the duration of the project and we are working towards an opening date in 2026.”

Top pic: The view on Regent Street yesterday