Work is to start at the beginning of April on the redevelopment of Coventry’s Transport Museum.

The £8.5m project, six years in the making, will see 12 of the museum’s 14 galleries transformed and will also improve a range of visitor facilities at the museum. The redevelopment will also see the Grade I listed Old Grammar School – which has been disused since 1984 – turned into a feature exhibition, education and event space for the museum.

"Coventry was and is so important to the motor industry and cars are in its DNA,” said Reyahn King head of Heritage Lottery Fund West Midlands. "Coventry Transport Museum tells a tremendously important story about the area and the UK as a whole."

The museum is part of Culture Coventry – a trust set up last year that also includes the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum.

The redevelopment has been funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, European Regional Development Fund, Biffa Award and the Garfield Weston Foundation.