PARALYMPIC hero and four-time Wimbledon champion Jordanne Whiley will be the guest of honour at the opening of the relocated Dudley Museum.

The Halesowen wheelchair tennis star, who is also a freewoman of Dudley borough, will official open the museum at its new home at Dudley Archives on Saturday, September 30.

Jordanne will also feature in the museum’s new ‘Dudley heroes’ gallery, where her Wimbledon kit will be on display, alongside two of record-breaking jumper Joe Darby’s belts and footballing legend Duncan Edward’s shorts and caps, on loan from Manchester United.

The heroes gallery is just one element of the museum which includes geology, dinosaurs, fine art, glass and social history.

Councillor Ian Kettle, cabinet member responsible for tourism, said: “We’re delighted that Jordanne has agreed to open the new museum for us.

“She is one of the borough’s great sporting heroes and we feel exceptionally privileged that not only is she opening the museum, but that she is loaning us a complete set of her Wimbledon kit for display in the gallery.

“The design of the new museum will allow people to discover all that this great and good about Dudley borough, from the geology that made the landscapes we enjoy today to the people past and present who make the borough a place to be proud of.”

The collections which were based at the old museum in St James Road, have been packed and moved to their new home at the Tipton Road archives building.

The council’s controversial decision to close the museum and relocate the collections to the archives building was not a popular one, with 91 per cent of News readers voting against the move in a poll the paper ran in 2015.