Trustees of Wiltshire Heritage Museum are pinning their hopes of salvation on a Big Lottery grant after Wiltshire Council rejected their plea for more cash.

In a message to members before Christmas, Dr Negley Harte, chairman of the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, which owns and runs the museum in Long Street, Devizes, said the society could become effectively bankrupt in two to three years unless more funding was injected.

The museum houses the best collection of Neolithic artefacts outside London and has designated collection status. Wiltshire Council’s subsidy to the museum has been stuck at £35,000 a year for some years and Dr Harte and his fellow trustees applied for this to be raised to £60,000.

Alan Macrae, the councillor responsible for heritage and culture, said: “In the recent road shows regarding public money in the run-up to our budget, nobody was saying put more money into museums. They were saying take money out of museums to fix roads, keep children’s centres open and so on.”

David Dawson, the museum’s director, accepted that their plea for more funding was a forlorn hope. He said: “Wiltshire Council is having to cut its budgets by £33million, which makes it very difficult for everyone.

“But we should hear in the next month from the Heritage Lottery Fund if our application for £300,000 for a new Bronze Age gallery has been successful. If it is, it will bring more people into Devizes to spend more money.”