There is triple reason to celebrate at Beamish Museum this week with news that the family attraction has won a venue of the year award - just as it launches its big birthday celebrations and announces record visitor numbers.
The County Durham museum marks its Golden Jubilee this year and on Tuesday it officially got the party started with a special event at its 1950s welfare hall where it revealed that 2019-20 figures show it welcomed a whopping 800,000 visitors for the first time.
Special guests and staff in period costume enjoyed a birthday party which will be one of several held throughout the museum site over coming weeks and months.
At the same time Beamish is also celebrating a new award - for the welcome it gives to disabled visitors.
The museum has been named northern England venue of the year by disabled access charity Euan’s Guide which says its work to include those with disabilities is outstanding.
This includes making its historic buildings as accessible as possible and including an induction loop system in many of them.
The open air museum also offers free wheelchair hire as well as an accessible bus. There are Changing Places - fully accessible - toilet facilities too and many of its staff and volunteers have qualified as Dementia Friends.
Hundreds of of venues across the UK were nominated by disabled people for the awards and Beamish was one of eight regional winners said to provide 'an outstanding welcome for disabled visitors'.
And its staff are delighted to hear the news from Euan’s Guide whose review website offers disabled people a platform to locate and share information about access.
Beamish's deputy director Rhiannon Hiles said: "We feel incredibly proud to receive this wonderful accolade and to be recognised nationally for the work we do in making the museum more accessible for disabled people”.
Rhiannon, who attended Tuesday's birthday party, actually started at the museum as a volunteer 25 years ago and she too is celebrating her 50th birthday this year.
The other seven regional winners of the award are the Barbican in London; Cadbury World in the Midlands; Newquay Zoo; Folly Farm in Wales; Edinburgh’s Holyrood Distillery; Culloden Battlefield and the George Best Belfast City Airport.
