Beamish enjoys historic year with record visitor numbers

A record number of visitors have taken a step back in time at a popular museum.

Beamish, The Living Museum of the North, welcomed a record-breaking 747,651 visitors during 2016, which is a rise of 11% on the previous year.

Staff and volunteers are celebrating after breaking the 700,000 visitors milestone for the first time in the museum’s 46-year history.

Visitor numbers in December were up by an amazing 38% on the previous year.

And, figures have more than doubled since 2008, making Beamish the region’s most popular paid-for visitor attraction.

The news rounds off an amazing year for the County Durham open air museum, which was awarded £10.9million by the Heritage Lottery Fund for its Remaking Beamish project, to feature a 1950s town, farm and Georgian coaching inn.

Beamish was also named Large Visitor Attraction of the Year for the third year in a row at the North East England Tourism Awards 2016.

Richard Evans, Beamish’s Director, said: “This is a real success story for the North East and a tribute to the hard work of all our staff and volunteers.

“We have enjoyed record results since the middle of 2016, including an incredible 91,000 visitors in December.

“The growth and the income this generates helps not just Beamish, but the whole region. More than half of our visitors are tourists and nearly all of them stay overnight in hotels, bed and breakfasts and guest houses, as well as visiting the other cultural and heritage gems we have in this fantastic region.”