The sale of a set of former fishermen's cottages in Sheringham, which for several years operated as a museum, will allow the next stage to be reached in a long-running project to open a new seafront museum featuring three of the town's former lifeboats.

The sale of a set of former fishermen's cottages in Sheringham, which for several years operated as a museum, will allow the next stage to be reached in a long-running project to open a new seafront museum featuring three of the town's former lifeboats.

The sale of the five cottages, which are understood to have fetched their guide price of £275,000, was completed on Tuesday.

The money will be used alongside a £799,950 Heritage Lottery Fund grant to move the contents from the old museum and many more artefacts to the promenade building the Mo.

The three former town lifeboats, the JC Madge, the Foresters' Centenary and the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows, are set to be housed at the Mo.

The Mo lay empty from the date it was built in 1996 as a community amenity bonus during an Anglian Water sewerage improvement scheme, until 2002, when the JC Madge and the Foresters' Centenary were placed there. Opening is currently limited to Wednesdays only.

Yesterday's completed sale meant the end of an era but the start of a new one, said Colin Wildee, vice-chairman of trustees with Sheringham Museum Trust.

Fellow trustee Denise Lattaway said the sale was an “emotional event” and it was sad to see the cottages go.

“It is a big deal, we have grown very fond of the cottages, but we have to move on and display our town lifeboats in a place where people can access them.

“This is another stage of a long process of starting small and becoming bigger over the years, creating something which the town can continue to be proud of.”

Mr Wildee said the move would not have been possible without the assistance of a large band of volunteers and the wider community.

“There were the people who manned the museum when it was open in the cottages, plus the people who took part in the lengthy and careful packing up of the artefacts which used to be housed in the cottages.

“And then there were the people at the removals firm Good Move who gave us a very professional service for free.”

Trust president Mary Blyth said it was hoped the new museum at the Mo would be open in late summer 2009.

The cottages have been sold with outline planning permission for conversion into one-bedroom flats.

www.sheringhammuseum.co.uk