14277/2GAZETTE & HERALD: Fourteen years after the idea was spawned, the Earl of Kerry unveiled the Calne Heritage Centre on Tuesday, 100 years after his great-great-uncle laid the foundation stone for the building in which it presides.

Over 80 councillors and officers from around the region joined trustees and the Friends of the Heritage Trust to celebrate the opening.

At midday, after being shown around the Carnegie building with its 22 information boards explaining the history of Calne, the current Earl of Kerry unveiled the plaque officially opening the centre.

The Earl of Kerry said he was pleased to be a patron of the heritage centre.

"I was asked to inaugurate the building and make a short speech.

"Obviously it's an area which my family has a strong association with and it's an honour (to open the centre).

"I think what they have done is terrific and I would like to spend more time and look at it in more depth."

The heritage centre is in the old library, Carnegie Building, in The Strand. The library has now been moved to the town centre.

It cost over £55,000 to adapt and renovate the building and work started in April this year. Artefacts of Calne's past and present and plans of future projects are on display.

The chairman of the Friends, Roger Partridge, said he was glad school representatives came to the opening.

"It was nice to see such a turn out from local people, particularly the schools and we are hoping to involve them a lot more for projects," he said.

Mr Partridge added the volunteers, who have been working for the last three weeks running the heritage centre, are now at a high standard.

"We have had about 300 visitors since it opened and that's with a few bits in the Gazette, but I am sure it's been to our advantage, because we have been able to practise."

Trustee Peter Treloar said: "I was involved from the start in 1989 and then it was a working party.

"The interest was registered in 1994 although we had been working on it and did an exhibition on Harris's in 1992.

"I am absolutely delighted that we have managed to achieve the opening of the heritage centre."

Mr Treloar said the centre would not be static with new artefacts being donated and new exhibitions being planned.

"For example, the town council has a lot of material that we haven't got in here yet.

"People are offering us things all the time and we take a note. We have a number of other things that we can put on panels.

"We would like to cover the villages too, so they can have their own panels, and also business in the town.

"We are still drawing breath having got this far."

Publicity Officer for the Trust, Craig Gascoigne, said the event was first class.

"The catering was first class, the ambience was excellent, the speeches were short and sharp and I know what I heard that the people who came here were most impressed with what they had seen and what they heard."

In 2000, a petition containing 1,836 signatures and more than 60 letters opposed the sale of Carnegie building and supported the idea of creating a heritage centre.

The overwhelming public support helped persuade the Charities Commission to reconsider the sale.

It ruled that Wiltshire County Council could sell the building to Calne Town Council and the town council agreed to charge the trust a peppercorn rent for the use of the building with the library moving to its current location in Curzon Street.

The centre itself is now open from 10am to 4pm from Wednesday to Saturday and 1pm to 4pm on Sunday with free entry.