There is a museum in a sleepy Derbyshire village reputed to be the least popular attraction in Britain.
Diseworth Heritage Centre welcomed only 20 visitors in 2022, falling from 356 the year before, Visit England figures show.
Housed inside a Grade II-listed, converted 18th century Baptist chapel in the middle of Diseworth, the centre only opens on request.
Also let for events, the venue is an accredited museum which, according to its website, displays “a wealth” of photos of the local area and village history.
There are also artefacts and memorabilia in the centre’s main hall which shine a light on life in the villages of Diseworth and Long Whatton.
Dating back to Roman times, much of Diseworth was bought by Henry VII’s mother, Margaret Beaufort, to found Christ’s College, Cambridge.
For centuries, the village was “dominated” by the owners of the Langley Priory estate and Christ’s College, which sold its interest in 1920.
On the M1 corridor, Diseworth is not far from East Midlands Airport, which is named as a sponsor of the Heritage Centre.
The second least visited in 2022 was Datchworth Museum in Knebworth, which occupies an old blacksmith’s forge.
According to Visit England, the venue welcomed an estimated 30 visitors in both 2021 and 2022, when the country was in the middle of the Covid pandemic.
Windsor Great Park (5,636,844) topped the list of visitor numbers in 2022, followed by the Natural History Museum (4,654,608), Brighton Pier (4,632,108) and the British Museum (4,097,253).
The difference in visitor numbers between top attractions and lesser-known local venues underlines how some sites have struggled financially in recent years.
An Arts Council England commissioned report published in February found 36.7 percent drop in real terms funding from local government since 2010.
Comparing 2009-10 budgets with those of 2022-23, the report showed a cash reduction in local authority spending on museums and galleries from £286m in 2009-10 to £241m from 2022-23.
The researchers said that equates to a 36.7 percent reduction in real terms adjusted for inflation.
