The Museum of Kent Life hopes an injection of £400,000 and new links with business will boost visitor numbers.

The Continuum Group, which runs attractions such as The Canterbury Tales in Canterbury and the Spinnaker Tower, Portsmouth, and helped set up Dickens World in Chatham, has teamed up with the Museum of Kent Life Trust to run the unique attraction in Maidstone.

York-based Continuum will invest £280,000, with a further £120,000 coming from the Trust and Kent County Council.

Continuum has promised to boost marketing and make the museum a "stronger" brand with the aim of increasing visitor numbers from around 60,000 a year to 100,000.

More play facilities

Part of the strategy is to add more play facilities to a site that features restored old buildings, extensive hop gardens, and farm animals that give a unique and fascinating insight into bygone Kent.

Continuum says it wants its attractions to be "an enriching experience for visitors of all ages and backgrounds by driving up standards of interpretation, management and marketing. Our focus is to broaden audience appeal of stories and sites through both traditional and innovative interpretation techniques and delivery mechanisms."

At a formal ceremony to confirm the partnership, Juliana Delaney, Continuum’s chief executive, said that while there were plans to increase the museum’s "family fun aspect," it would not become a theme park or funfair.

"Our interest was in taking all that was there, not changing or losing its integrity, charm or passions," she said. Its intention was to invest make the museum thrive."

Museum director John Jordan said that without this investment, the museum "didn’t really have a future."

David Brazier, chairman of the museum’s board of trustees, said: "We had to acknowledge the vulnerability of our economic position in difficult times."

He added that supporters would see a more commercially-minded strategy and that commerce and community values were not mutually exclusive.

Cllr Mike Hill, KCC’s Cabinet Member for Community Services, said: "There are huge opportunities which have not been seized over the years. "