The National Trust has announced that the Museum of Childhood at Sudbury Hall in Derbyshire will reopen in spring 2008, following a £2.2m transformation.

The museum will increase in size by 50 per cent to provide eight new galleries packed with interactive displays, ‘have a go’ areas and multi-sensory activities for carers to explore with their babies.

The Adventure gallery will feature a reconstructed Victorian street with outdoor games through the ages, such as kites and marbles, as well as different outdoor environments like a beach and stream.

Work will show how children have worked in mines and textile mills, in the fields and as chimney sweeps. Visitors will be able to walk down a Victorian mine tunnel, experience a chimney climb and explore a reconstructed scullery.

The Home exhibit will include toys and games from the Second World War, while School will provide a recreated Victorian schoolroom, complete with playground games and information on school dinners, uniforms and learning styles.

The younger Baby area will look at a baby’s first year of life in different countries worldwide, showcasing christening robes and prams.

Visitors will enter Stories and Rhymes through a scene-setting corridor replicating a desert island, outer space and a forest, before emerging into a gallery of marionettes, theatres, books and a performance area, complemented by the Toys exhibit, which will explore how toys are made, the reasons we collect them and the ways we play with them.

The Temporary Exhibitions gallery will provide a space for special themed exhibitions taking place during the year.