Helston Museum is to change its name as the Museum of Cornish Life Helston in a bid to appeal to a wider audience.

Director Annette MacTavish said that while the story of Helston was still an important one they would always tell, there was so much more than that to the museum.

She told the Packet: "We want to draw more people in; we don't want people thinking we're a small museum. We're not just a museum with a collection based specifically about Helston. We've got a huge collection and it's a really important one."

The museum is spread over five display halls on three floors, with thousands of objects forming one of the largest social history collections in the South West, ranging from archaeological evidence of the earliest settlers to the Lizard Peninsula, to a fully stocked 1950s kitchen.

"We're not really a history of Cornwall, we know that's what the Royal Cornwall Museum does better, but we show the story of people's life," explained Annette.

"It is a big name change, but we really want the museum to be here in the future and for that to happen we need more than just people in the local area to know how brilliant we are.

"The main thing is that we just think the museum is really special. We know lots of people love the museum, but we want to share our story with more people."

She added that the South Kerrier Heritage Trust, which has managed the museum since 2013, was committed to keeping it free to visit and to do that it needed more donations and people spending money in the gift shop.

"We're in a really secure financial position, because of fundraising and we're good at managing resources, but we're quite aspirational and we want to grow. We're thinking about the whole future of the building and it would keep the building safe and the collection secure," she said.

Annette said she also wanted to encourage more schools to visit and take part in workshops that the museum runs, such as the Victorian days where children dress up and get to take part in a fully interactive Victorian-style lessons.

The museum staff, volunteers and trustees have been working on the changes for almost a year, with the help of the branding team at Wolf Rock.

It was after it was pointed out that the visitors saw the museum as more than just being about Helston, with reviews on Trip Advisor not talking about the Helston collection but the wider items.

The aim is to fully launch the changes and new signage in time for the October half term.