Photo: the Rotunda Museum has been welcoming the public since 1829. Courtesy Scarborough Borough Council.

Scarborough Museum & Gallery Service is hoping a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund for £2 million will help them restore the Rotunda Museum and turn it into a gateway to the town’s Dinosaur Coast.

As well as making it accessible for disabled visitors, plans are also in place to make the Victorian building a tribute to its designer, William Smith, the father of English geology.

"The Rotunda Museum has international significance and Smith’s work is recognised worldwide," said Lord Derwent of Hackness, chair of the museum trust.

"The restored Rotunda Museum will offer a focus for enjoyment and education and provide a gateway to Scarborough’s Dinosaur Coastline."

Photo: William Smith, the father of English geology. Courtesy Scarborough Borough Council.

Born in 1769 Smith’s story is a long and dramatic and takes in bankruptcy, a spell in Newgate Debtors’ Prison, a breakdown and a mentally ill wife. Yet by the time he died in 1839 he was recognised as one of the country’s leading academics.

It was while working in Somerset that Smith studied the strata at a local mine. He realised they were arranged in a predictable pattern and could always be found in the same relative positions.

Additionally, he discovered that each stratum could be identified by the fossils it contained. To test his theory he travelled around the country, becoming the first person to identify and map the strata.

These discoveries made oil and mineral extraction possible and in many ways changed the world. In 1831 Smith was awarded the first Wollaston medal by the Geological Society.

It was 11 years earlier that Smith arrived in Scarborough to benefit his wife’s health. There he found a town where fossil hunting was a fashionable, if a little uninformed, hobby of the gentry.

Photo: Courtesy Scarborough Borough Council.

So, when the Scarborough Philosophic Society decided to build a museum, it was to Smith they turned for help. He chose the cylindrical design, even insisting upon circular display cases.

The finished museum, known as the Rotunda and dedicated to housing geological specimens, was opened in 1829 and is now one of the oldest purpose built museums still in use.

Scarborough Borough Council’s Shirlie Stone told the 24 Hour Museum how, if the HLF bid is successful, a new geological centre will be created in Smith’s honour.

"The Rotunda was originally focussed on geology and will return to that," said Shirlie. "One wing will be a showcase for research as open to the academic as it will be to the 10-year-old with their first fossil find."

Photo: the Rotunda Museum pictured in the 19th century. Courtesy Scarborough Borough Council.

Now in its 175th year, the building is in need of restoration and bringing up to current accessibility standards, which will mean installing a lift to help disabled visitors reach the upper levels.

There will also be a visitor service centre aimed at opening up Scarborough’s Dinosaur Coastline, which the museum overlooks. As Shirlie explained, this will complement the work already undertaken by staff at the council.

"A colleague runs a Dino Coast project through the summer," she said, "trips of experts and families on fossil hunts and off season one of his staff members runs a community programme."

With the HLF bid now submitted and an answer expected in the Autumn, the council needs to raise £1 million in match funding.

"It is small, but it’s a fantastic little building," added Shirlie. "It’s so beautiful and it’s so beautifully set."