Monmouthshire County Council has appointed Purcell and their team of consultants to support the successful Heritage Fund grant application for the development phase of the Shire Hall and to integrate the museum and its collections, including the internationally significant Admiral Lord Nelson collection. 

The museum was located in the Market Hall in the town centre. It was closed during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom and did not re-open thereafter. In 2021 Monmouthshire County Council announced plans to move the museum collection to the Shire Hall in Agincourt Square.

Following the completion of work over the summer, plans will be formally submitted for building consent later in September. 

They are now inviting the public to view the designs and share their feedback during the week commencing Monday 23rd of September at the Shire Hall.

The proposals will complement other improvements in Monmouth. Creating a venue with a shared community/learning space will enable the local authority to ensure future services' sustainability. 

The current brief being developed is to reconfigure the existing external and internal spaces to reinterpret and display the museum collections to tell the town's stories, including the role Shire Hall played in this history through notable events such as the Chartist uprising and the history of local and national democracy. 

The museum move also provides an opportunity to explore the life and passions of Lady Llangattock, whose own gift forms the basis of an internationally significantcollection relating to Admiral Lord Nelson. 

The museum's object collection relates to the social history of the town and surrounding area, and using loaned items, it has developed more contemporary modern themes such as the Rockfield recording studio and local artists.

The five-year project, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, will see a new museum open at the Shire Hall by 2027. The Market Hall site will be let as commercial premises.

The Nelson collection was a bequest to the town of Monmouth on the death of Lady Georgiana Llangattock in 1923 and includes Nelson's naval officers fighting sword (and those of the surrendered French and Spanish naval commanders at Trafalgar); letters from Nelson and various items commemorating Nelson's victories.