A spring clean and some fresh exhibitions have made the Beccles and District Museum fit and ready for viewing again.

And volunteers are looking to draw visitors with an exhibition dedicated to Molly Pagan who educated children at Leman House P.N.E.U School in Ballygate.

The popular head of school negotiated the purchase of the building in the late 1940s and retired in the late 1970s.

The tribute to Miss Pagan will be marked by an expected 16 of her relatives, including her niece and nephew, coming to look at the museum.

Trustee David Broom said until now the museum has not featured much about Miss Pagan.

He added: 'We felt that now was the time to do some changes.'

Last year, surveyors told volunteers at the museum they were not able to store so many objects in the loft of the 450 year old building.

So background staff put their tireless efforts into bringing everything down over winter and redesigning the display cabinets so many of the objects could be stored underneath.

Along with the tribute to Miss Pagan, visitors can expect to see new display cabinets.

One of which is the Leisure Cabinet which boasts the Beccles Hospital Football Cup which was first presented in 1920 following the game between Lowestoft Town and Beccles Town. The competition started after the First World War to help raise money to support the hospital.

There is also on display a water polo trophy which was first awarded in 1912, metal quoits and The Rose Coney Hospital Cup presented by the Mayoress Rose Coney in 1950 to the Beccles Ladies Bowls Club.

The cup is hallmarked London 1863.

Curator Alan Wheeler said: 'I think it's an opportunity to look at and review what we have on display. It's an opportunity to clean and refresh the building. Some of the objects are new on display and have not been looked at before.

'We hope to use some of the stuff we have uncovered for our displays. It's been quite a voyage of discovery to actually find what we do have here. No one really knew what we had upstairs.'

Volunteers had just five weeks from when the school parties stopped coming near the end of February until they came back at the end of March to complete the museum revamp.

Beccles and District Museum opens its doors again on Wednesday, April 1 and on Easter Saturday, April 4, descendents of Miss Pagan will be there from 1.45pm.

Organisers are looking for former pupils of Miss Pagan's to come along to meet and have a chat.

Do you have a Beccles story? Email bbj.news@archant.co.uk