The Mid-Suffolk Light Railway was named as the best museum in Suffolk tonight at a University Campus Suffolk-hosted prize-giving ceremony.

The Suffolk Museum of the Year Awards came to a climax this evening as the Wetheringsett-based attraction scooped the top gong after months of voting and judging.

The MSLR beat off competition from seven other shortlisted museums to claim the title in the awards’ third year.

Meanwhile The Suffolk Regiment Museum in Bury St Edmunds was announced as winner of the Special Award for Individuality, Innovation and Service while Gainsborough’s House in Sudbury was presented with the Award for Community and Education Engagement.

The prize for Object of the Year was chosen by a public vote on the Association of Suffolk Museums website. Every museum which entered the competition was able to put forward an object from their collection they felt had an interesting history or story, or was unique to their organisation.

This was given to Christchurch Mansion in Ipswich for its oil painting The Felixstowe to Ipswich Coach by Russell Sidney Reeve.

The other museums on the shortlist were:

n Beccles and District Museum;

n Halesworth Museum;

n Lowestoft Maritime Museum;

n And the Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum, Flixton.

John Reeve, marketing manager for the railway, said: “It’s amazing to win this award, and a testament to the hard work of our volunteers.

“Being named Suffolk Museum of the Year will help to raise our profile further and let more people know we are out here offering a unique experience in the county.

“The one thing we hope it will be able to do is assist us in the future with further developments at the museum.”

The public was able to vote on the competition’s long list from June until the end of August using voting slips available at each competing museum and published in the East Anglian Daily Times.

The top eight museums were then visited by a panel of judges from the paper, the Association of Suffolk Museums and BBC Radio Suffolk.