SINCE opening the doors to the county museum collections last summer, the new Ludlow Museum Resource Centre has welcomed hundreds of learners to courses, lectures and workshops.

All have been offered the chance to see more of the amazing natural and social history and geology collections.

A wide choice of subjects is on offer again this autumn, and all are suitable for beginners and experienced students alike.

Bob Milner will look at the world of childhood through the material at the centre and his own eclectic collections in Angels or Monsters: A Sideways Look at Childhood.

The 10-week course will cover infants, teenagers, workers, scholars, victims and criminals and starts on September 21.

Angela Gladwell will run an eight-week natural history painting and drawing class in which students will work directly from specimens from the museum's collections, including insects, corals, shells, bones and birds.

Ludlow Historical Research Group members have devised a research course.

Basic Techniques in Local History will introduce students to various resources, including newspapers, trade directories, probates, title deeds, churchwardens' accounts, old documents, maps, census returns, parish registers and family histories, tax records and borough records.

It runs for 12 weeks from September 29.

Archaeologist Mike Watson returns to continue his story of the history of Shropshire. His lectures on the archaeology of Roman Shropshire are on Thursdays for 10 weeks from October 7.

Fossils Alive will help to answer many questions that puzzle us, using the specimens from the centre's extensive collections, every Thursday morning for eight weeks starting on October 7.

For details or to book a place on a course, phone the centre on 01584 813666 or pick up a booking form at Ludlow Library.