VITAL district council funding has been awarded to local historians trying to set up Bordon's first museum, but too late to lease their preffered site. The Woolmer Forest Heritage Society asked East Hampshire District Council's community forum for £2,000 in January, towards the rent of a cottage, at 2 Heathcote Road, it wanted to use as a museum and storage facility. The request was finally granted at a meeting of the forum this week, at which it transpired that the cottage was no longer available to rent because it had been taken over as the site office for the adjacent Wilkinson development. The society was told it will have to return the money if a suitable alternative location is not found within nine months, giving it until the end of the year to find and sign a rental agreement on a new home. Forum members deferred making a decision until this month because they usually award one-off grants to create self-financing projects and were worried the society would ask for more when the money dried up. Society representative John Kilburn told councillors this week that the group still wanted £2,000 from the forum because this, along with a £1,000 grant from Whitehill Town Council, would unlock more funds from the county council. Hampshire County Council gave the society £1,800 in 2006/2007 to lease storage space at the Phoenix Theatre until it found a more permanent location. This space is still being used to house historical artefacts. A further £3,200 has been pledged by the county council towards rental costs on the condition that matched funding was provided by the town and district councils, which is now in place. Had the forum bid been approved in January, the society would have had the £6,000 annual rent for the cottage (pictured below and formerly the office of the Bordon Herald) before work began on the Wilkinson project. In its bid, the society described the cottage, which has historical significance as one of the few remaining Edwardian cottages in the town, as an ideal site because the lease could be renewed on a monthly basis as long as funding lasted. Another major advantage was its location next door to Bordon Library - the subject of an ongoing feasibility study to see whether it can become a discovery centre, incorporating a library and museum. In the society's bid, trustee Bill Wain wrote: "Getting a foot in the door of suitable premises close to the Bordon Library would raise the profile both of the society and of the discovery centre and allow progress to be built upon our established, visible and effective presence in the community." Mr Kilburn explained that although the cottage was no longer an option, the grant money will pay for storage space at the Phoenix in the short term and allow the society to act quickly if and when another suitable site becomes available.