FROM Lewis Carroll’s pocket watch to a 400-year-old tennis ball, residents will now have the chance to adopt their own bit of the city’s history.

In a bid to fund the £2.8m redevelopment of the Museum of Oxford, Oxfordshire County Council’s Museum Service is opening up its collections for adoption.

For a fee residents will have the chance to chose from around 60 objects including a Saxon arrowhead and a Morris Minor badge.

Peter Simpson is the first adopter, paying £50 for a Saxon child’s shoe.

The 70-year-old museum volunteer said: “I have been volunteering at the museum for the last seven years.

“And this shoe is one piece in the exhibition that always catches people’s eyes.

“I think it is because it used to be somebody’s, it is personal, there is a real human story there and that is what makes it so interesting for people.

“When I was asked if I would like to adopt an object, it was the first thing that came to my mind.”

Mr Simpson, who previously worked in the travel business, said the Saxons had their own shoe sizes, which would be determined using peppercorns.

He added: “The sizes would be measured in peppercorns.

“The shoe is made of goat skin and for an adult shoe it would have cost sixpence, so this one obviously would have been a lot less.

“I would imagine this would have been that child’s first shoe at about seven or eight years old.”

Adopters will get an adoption certificate, a digital image of the object, their name in the museum’s online gallery and an invite to the new museum’s opening in 2020.

Adoption fees start at £25 and all the money raised from the scheme will go towards the redevelopment of the museum.

If all 60 objects are adopted, it will raise £5,000 to go towards the transformation of the museum, called Oxford’s Hidden Histories.

Oxford City Council hopes to raise £1.6m through a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and has set aside a further £315,000 for the project. It is hoped that the remaining funds will be raised through private donations.

The project will see the Old Museum, which was closed in 2011, reopened and knocked through from the Town Hall to create a new, large and purpose-built space.

As well as allowing the museum to display objects that are currently in storage, the redevelopment will feature hands-on activities and state-of-the-art displays.

The new museum will be three times the size of the current space and will allow us to increase the number of exhibits from 286 to 750.

City councillor Dee Sinclair said: “This is a unique opportunity to adopt a piece of Oxford’s history and be part of our exciting project to create a new museum for Oxford, a museum that will tell the story of and celebrate the city’s diverse communities – a people’s museum.”

A funding application to the Heritage Lottery Fund will be submitted later this year. It is hoped building work will start in 2018, with the new museum opening in 2020.

For more details visit: oxfordhiddenhistories.org