More than £100,000 has been awarded to Ipswich Museum to help bring to life the prehistoric era - with the museum's mammoth Wool-I-Am to get his own gallery.

The £110,000 grant has come from the Wolfson Foundation which will go towards the refurbishment of Ipswich Museum in High Street.

The new gallery for Wool-I-Am will present the extinct mammal in a wondrous space that will bring to life his prehistoric world and the local, related archaeological digs at Stoke Tunnel.

The giant animal will stand impressively centre-stage in the space, surrounded by a series of angular flats and plinths depicting the Steppe landscape of his homeland that will be animated using stylised graphics and gobo lighting.

Display cases will be embedded into the walls and plinth tops, presenting some of the many unique items discovered locally from this period including tusks, teeth and bones.

Stoke Tunnel will be recreated as a crawl space for children where inside they can conduct their own archaeological discoveries of mammoths and woolly rhinoceroses through a range of sensory and tactile exhibits.

Other funding for the £8.7 million refurbishments includes £4.3 million from the National Lottery Heritage Funds, £3.6 million of Ipswich Borough Council funding, £40,000 from Friends of the Ipswich Museums. £340,000 which will be raised through fundraising with trusts and other charitable foundations plus £300,000 of various others including volunteer time.

Councillor Carole Jones, Ipswich Borough Council portfolio holder for museums, said: “We are delighted to receive this support from the Wolfson Foundation.

"As well as providing an impressive backdrop for Wool-I-Am, this new gallery will look in detail at the human story and the long-term impact early modern humans had on other species, our environments and the planet.

"We are really looking forward to working with the people of Ipswich and our funding partners to inspire a new generation through the new stories we tell within Ipswich Museum.”