The Welsh minister for heritage, Alun Ffred Jones, has announced £1m of new funding for the St Fagans: National History Museum in Cardiff.

The funding, which follows on from £400,000 last year from the Welsh Assembly Government, will enable the museum to carry out essential maintenance and modernisation works across the site, such as upgrading its electrical and water capacity. The work will also lay the foundations for the longer term redevelopment of the site by ensuring that it is capable of supporting planned new galleries and visitor services. This project recently received a £450,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund for the museum to work up more detailed plans.

Under these plans, St Fagans would see the introduction of the National Archaeology Collection and an extended time-line to cover the 250,000 years of human inhabitation of Wales. There would be investment in interpretation across the site and the creation of a new indoor space in the grounds, providing an all-weather facility away from the existing main building. The existing galleries and visitor facilities would also be upgraded. St Fagans: National History Museum opened in 1948 as the first open-air museum in the UK, with the aim of portraying how the people of Wales lived, worked and spent their leisure time over the last 500 years.

Today, it has more than 40 original buildings, moved from various parts of Wales and re-erected to show different periods in history. It is Wales's most popular visitor attraction, hosting in excess of 600,000 visits a year.