A ROYAL visitor will help open the Tank Museum in Bovington’s new exhibition dedicated to the design and manufacture of British armoured vehicles later this month.

HRH the Duke of Kent, who is a patron of the museum, will cut the ribbon on the display, named Tank Factory, on March 26, with the help of Mavis Jones, who was a factory worker during the Second World War.

Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, the exhibition tells the story from 1916 to the present day about the men and women who built these complex machines and how the demands of factory life affected the workforce and wider society.

David Willey, curator of the Tank Museum, said: “We hope this exhibition brings a new story and perspective into the museum displays.

“It shows how such amazing machines are designed and made, and of course tells the story of the people who put them together, often with great pride and satisfaction in their work.”

The exhibition will also showcase what the museum describes as an ‘impressive’ line-up of vehicles and will cover a wide range of topics including materials, armour, weapons and testing, housed in older museum buildings.

Tank Factory also covers issues such as who builds tanks, why they look the way they do and what makes a good and bad tank.

Visitors will also be able to design their own armoured vehicle through the use of a touchscreen.