AN AWARD-winning Hampshire museum is set to receive the royal seal of approval after undergoing a major facelift costing almost £2 million.

A ceremony at the new-look St Barbe Museum and Art Gallery in Lymington will be performed by the Earl of Wessex, a long-standing supporter of the arts.

The 53-year-old royal will complete a tour of the former school as well as unveiling a plaque.

St Barbe re-opened last month following a raft of improvements that included better galleries, a new cafe and a “wavy wall” facade that has transformed the building’s appearance.

The official reopening will take place on September 28, with the Earl expected to spend more than an hour at the museum.

St Barbe is hosting an exhibition by Hampshire sculptor Geoffrey Dashwood and is also displaying many of the Roman coins found buried in a field near Lymington three years ago.

The museum raised the £30,000 needed to buy and display the hoard following the success of a fundraising appeal launched by TV historian Dan Snow.

Director Mark Tomlinson described the Earl’s visit as “the next good thing” following the reopening and the unveiling of the new displays.

He added: “Having requested a royal visitor for the official reopening we’re delighted it’s going to be the Earl of Wessex, who is long-standing supporter of the arts.”

The Earl was a member of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Theatre Company and went on to form his own TV production company, Ardent Productions.

His trip to Barbe will be the latest in a series of visits he has made to Hampshire.

Last year he arrived in Marchwood to attend the rededication of a memorial to ten civilian sailors killed in the Falklands conflict in 1982.

More recently he opened the Mysterious Miss Austen exhibition at Winchester Discovery Centre.

In 2013 the Earl and his wife, the Countess of Wessex, visited the New Forest and Hampshire County Show. The Countess was also the show’s president in 2016-2017.

St Barbe was once described by VisitEngland as looking like a doctors’ surgery but has changed out of all recognition following the upgrade.

The museum reopened on July 29 in a ceremony performed by Lord Montagu of Beaulieu.