The new curator at Sandwich Guildhall Museum plans to make a precious medieval document one of the stars of a display alongside the town’s Magna Carta.

The document is called the Sandwich Custumal.

This records many provisions for the care and control of medieval Sandwich, including the curfew, a tradition still marked every night with the ringing of a bell at St Peter’s Church.

Curator Linda Elliott has been appointed to take over from Ray Harlow, who stepped down after many years in the voluntary role.

Her plans include using the Magna Carta and Charter of the Forest, along with the Custumal and other town treasures currently not on display, as centrepieces in a revitalised museum to attract more visitors to the town.

With a professional background in genealogical and family history research, she is looking to build on Mr Harlow’s work and on the rediscovery of Sandwich’s Magna Carta. Work is already being done to conserve the Custumal.

The Mayor of Sandwich, Cllr Paul Graeme, said: “Following the rediscovery of Sandwich’s Magna Carta and Charter of the Forest, and the very successful Magna Carta rediscovered exhibition, there has been an upsurge of interest locally and further afield in our town’s history and the Guildhall Museum and Archive.

“We’re immensely grateful to Ray Harlow for all the work he has done to bring the museum up to its current standard and we’re delighted to welcome Linda as our new honorary curator. With her professional research experience, we’re privileged to have Linda leading our team of dedicated and skilled volunteers.

“These are exciting times and we hope that everyone in the town can get involved, one way or another, in preserving and promoting this town’s unique heritage.”

The museum has recently received renewed accreditation from Arts Council England for its standards of operation, collection care and development.

In order to maintain that standard, Linda and the team of volunteer archivists are already working with Sandwich United Charity to conserve and make more accessible documents and materials which were previously stored in a wooden chest in the 13th-century St Bartholomew’s Chapel.

Two baptism and burial registers, vital documents for local and family history, were digitalised and transcribed at the Guildhall Archives before being deposited at the Diocesan Records Office in Canterbury.

Other papers and books dating back to the Georgian period, previously stored in the chest, have been dried before being entered into the archives, where they have joined other items on loan from Sandwich United Charity to be accessible for consultation by amateur and professional historians.

Work is also being undertaken with the Kent History & Library Centre to conserve the Sandwich Tithe Maps of 1843, an invaluable resource for historians and genealogists.

The refurbishment of the museum will not only see displays modernised and a shift in focus to showcase the real gems of the town’s collection, but it will also become more family-friendly and more accessible for disabled people.