A NEW museum, giving an insight into policing over the last three centuries, is set to open in Bradford tomorrow.

Volunteers, including former Bradford community relations inspector Martin Baines and his curator daughter Natalie, have been involved in getting The Police Museum off the ground.

Donations from local business people have helped them to prepare a collection of artefacts charting the history of the police service in Bradford.

The museum, which has been set up on the site of the old police station in Bradford City Hall, opens its doors for the first time tomorrow.

For the next six weeks it will offer a free "sneak peek" for the public every Wednesday between 2pm and 4pm and Thursday between 10am and noon, before officially opening for three days a week from October, with a charge for visitors.

Among the attractions are original Bradford City Police uniforms from the 19th century, lamps used by nightwatchmen, weapons hand-made by soldiers in World War One which were then used by Bradford police officers, and images of the original Swain Street police station, as well as pieces of a World War Two bomber shot down over Bradford, and traffic vehicle displays.

Visitors will also be able to see the original police cells dating back to the 1870s.

Mr Baines said there were also exhibits about a number of Bradford policing firsts, including the first fingerprint evidence used outside a London court, and the first admissible tape recorded evidence.

He said: "It's a very exciting project and a really exciting museum which will give an insight into policing in Bradford past and present.

"It has been a lot of hard work, we are all volunteers, but we are here ready to open and it is pretty exciting to reach this point.

"We are still raising money but we have had kind donations from local people and we will continue to develop the museum over the next couple of years."

Although there will be no charge yet, Mr Baines said the charity would welcome donations from visitors.