A MASSIVE store could be created to put thousands of hidden York museum artefacts on public show.

Heritage partners are planning the custom-made building, which could cost up to £20 million, and would take artefacts previously unseen by York's public out of storerooms across the city.

It is hoped they would be put in a specially built, atmosphere-controlled building, which would effectively become a huge new museum.

The plan is being worked on by a partnership including City of York Council, the National Railway Museum, the York Archaeological Trust, English Heritage and York Minster.

Charlie Croft, the acting head of the York Leisure Office, said: "The plan is about better storage for museum artefacts and, above all, better access for the people of York.

"I don't know how much of York's heritage is behind the scenes, in storage rather than on show in museums, but there is far more than is on public display."

He said one of the main problems at the moment was that some storage areas did not have moisture control, which is important for historical items. And he said the public did not have good access to the things that were not on display.

The new scheme would also aim to catalogue the artefacts on the Internet, giving York's collection a worldwide audience.

The partnership is working now to make a bid for Government cash for the building by the end of this month.

"It is going to have to be a pretty massive building," he said.

"One of the problems at the moment is finding a site for it. It is going to have to be purpose-built, and ideally it would be in a city centre location to give the best access possible.

"The hope is to have a bid for cash in by the end of this month, but I can't say for certain that that is going to happen."

Updated: 10:48 Friday, September 07, 2001