A museum is eyeing up a move to a Victorian church which is on the market for almost half a million pounds.

Sittingbourne Heritage Museum is looking to expand and is considering St Mary’s in Park Road in Sittingbourne.

The former church has been listed for sale with an asking price of £480,000. It has not been used for at least two years.

The museum is looking for larger premises than its current home in The Forum Shopping Centre which is not large enough to hold all its collection.

It has thousands of artefacts, maps and photographs, which help to tell the history of the town and surrounding areas.

Chairman of Sittingbourne Heritage Museum, Allen Whitnell, told KentOnline that while initial inquiries two years ago did not come to anything, the group is still keeping an eye on St Mary’s.

He said: “It’s one of the sites we have visited in our search for our long-term home.

“At the moment we are having to rent out storage units elsewhere to store our collection as our current location isn’t big enough.

“We also do not know what the future is for our site in the shopping centre which is our short to medium term base.

“We did look at St Mary’s around two years ago but our initial enquiries did not come to anything but we have not ruled out a move.

“It is a good size for us but it is not ideal in terms of location as we would want somewhere that gets more footfall.

“But it would also mean the church would remain as a heritage site rather than being turned into something else like residential properties.

“We would have to get funding to buy it from places like the National Lottery.”

The heritage museum moved to The Forum in December 2022 after being at 67 East Street since 1997.

Plans to convert its former home into a hairdressers were submitted to Swale council by Ardalan Hasib this month.

Allen said he would be happy to see a business move into the East Street property to fill the vacant shop.

Meanwhile, BTF Partnership LLP, which is overseeing the sale of the church, says the 890 sq m offers scope for “alternative uses or conversion”.

The building designed by architect R Philip Day and was built in the early 1900s. An extension was added in the 1930s which included a new hall.

According to the Church of England, it was first consecrated – declared sacred – on January 25, 1902.

Its role as a chapel was to ease pressure on the Holy Trinity parish in Milton Regis, which had seen the population in its area increase thanks to the growing brick and paper industries.

St Mary’s became a separate parish in 1925 but joined the parish of St Michael’s in Sittingbourne High Street in 2000.

The property is not listed or within a conservation area.