Plans to extend the Amersham Museum into the building next door in a project costing thousands have been revealed.

Extra space to enable the museum to hold more events and allow volunteers to carry out research will be created once the work is completed.

About £400,000 will be needed to merge the two buildings into one and work is set to begin next year. The project is likely to take six months to complete.

Emily Toettcher, the museum's curator, said: “One of our key things is to be able to provide more public space. The space we have for public events isn't really big enough.

“It will be a multi purpose room where we can do talks and craft events. We do lots of family events in the garden in the summer, but this will give us much more flexibility in the colder months.

“There will also be more space for volunteers to research and have access to the collections. At the moment the space is so limited - it's difficult if people want to get out large maps, for example."

She added: “We'd like to tell stories of Amersham and the broader area, and also more recent history of the town.

“Last year we did a project on World War One, the year before that we did one for the anniversary of the Metropolitan line, and this year we're doing a project on the 1940s. We'd like to be able to reflect that in our permanent displays.”

The High Street museum bought the neighbouring building last year, although it is still being used by the current tenant.

The museum will take official ownership in October 2015, with much of the work likely to take place during the winter months - outside of the museum's regular season.