In brief

The British Postal Museum and Archive (BPMA) is to relocate its London headquarters from Freeling House to Calthorpe House, which is the site of the country’s oldest mail centre. The BPMA has secured a £6m loan from Royal Mail and Post Office to convert the venue into a museum, which would provide space to display exhibits currently in storage.


Nelson’s flagship vessel, HMS Victory, has secured a £50m endowment towards its upkeep. The Gosling Foundation pledged a capital grant of £25m, with match funding from the Ministry of Defence (MoD). Custodianship of the vessel has been transferred from the MoD to a new charitable trust overseen by the National Museum of the Royal Navy. 
 

Entries for the 2013 European Museum of the Year Award and the Council of Europe Museum Prize are now open. New or recently redeveloped museums of any size or type are eligible for the two main prizes, as well as several smaller awards. The deadline for entries is 31 May.


The Heritage Lottery Fund has announced an additional £1m for its Young Roots programme, which supports projects that engage young people in topics such as social history and archaeology. The increase takes the annual budget for the programme to £4m. The extra money means the grant threshold for projects will double to £50,000.