WALLS will be demolished and a new staircase built at the Pershore Cemetery Lodge before it becomes a new history centre to make it more user friendly.

Plans are moving forward as the first draft of what the building could look like in the future have been given the thumbs up by councillors.

Pershore Town Council cemetery committee have given their support to the initial drawings, which outline what the new Family History Research Centre will look like.

This follows the cash injection of £52,100 from the Heritage Lottery Fund last summer, which enabled the project to transform the Cemetery Lodge at Pershore Cemetery in Three Springs Road.

At a meeting of the town council on Thursday, chairman of the committee Cllr Chris Parsons gave a brief description of what would be happening at the Lodge.

"The big job is the Lodge," he said. "We have seen the first draft of the plans for the alterations of the Lodge. We have retained the outside toilet for users of the cemetery and an additional toilet is going to be needed.

"Some of the inside walls will be demolished to lead the rooms through together, but nothing major.

"There's going to be a new staircase. The current staircase is very steep and very narrow. We feel by putting a new staircase in with a lesser angle it will make the upstairs much more usable."

The next stage is for the town council to approve the draft so a planning application can be submitted.

Cllr Parsons added: "The draft plans are now with the town clerk and we want to put the planning application in for these alterations."

Pershore Mayor Cllr Tony Rowley said: "I have seen the plans and they look good."

The project is being led by Pershore Town Council and its cemetery committee and will focus on mapping the cemetery and researching the families behind some of the graves.

As part of the new centre IT facilities will be brought in enabling visitors to research the lives of the families of those buried in the cemetery.

Displays will also be created to explain the role of the workhouse in the town and identify the large number of pauper graves at the cemetery as well as the war graves sections.

The local heritage and history society also has records of those living in the workhouse and these together with cemetery records enable this aspect of the history of the town to be brought to life.