The countdown is on in Street, where the brand new Shoemakers Museum is finally starting to take shape – and the first glimpse inside shows it's going to be anything but ordinary.

Yes, it's about shoes. But it's also about ichthyosaurs. Because while the museum celebrates 200 years of shoemaking in the village, it also dives 200 million years back in time to when Somerset was underwater and ruled by dolphin-shaped marine reptiles.

New photos show walls going up and fossils being mounted for the museum's Under the Sea gallery, where expert conservator Nigel Larkin is helping build a walk-through Jurassic display featuring ichthyosaurs, ammonites and fossil plants.

"It's all starting to feel real and we can't wait to welcome you in," said the team, as they revealed the progress this week.

The museum is being built at The Grange, a Grade II listed building in the heart of Street. Thanks to a major donation from the estate of Nathan Clark – great-grandson of James Clark, co-founder of Clarks shoes – and support from charitable trusts, it's being transformed into a new attraction that blends local industry, radical history and prehistoric life.

The building work is done. Fit-out is underway. And when it opens later this year, visitors will find three permanent exhibitions:

• Welcome to Street, exploring the town's role in everything from education to suffrage and abolitionism
• Making Shoes, with design stations and training tools from the Clarks factories
• Buying and Selling, featuring recreated Clarks shops from different eras and stories from across the globe

And then there's the fossils. Because this isn't just about stitching soles – it's about digging into the soul of Street itself.

The Alfred Gillett Trust, which now owns the Clarks heritage collection, also holds one of the most important local fossil collections in the country. And it's all going on display.

There'll be a café, a shop stocked with local makers' work, and educational spaces designed to bring in schools and community groups.

After years in the planning, the Shoemakers Museum is nearly ready to open its doors. The Jurassic Street story is about to begin – and it's got a lot more bite than you might expect.