Treasured heritage is at the heart of Yorkshire's cultural collections and with a tremendous effort to shine a light on the arts and its more distant past.

Now, a much-loved museum threatened with closure under council cuts has seen a sudden hike in its visitor numbers after a passionate community campaign.

There were petitions and protests last year as Abbey House Museum was set to be axed by Leeds City Council (LCC) in a bid to save £160,000 a year.

But under the latest figures for England, it emerges visitor numbers here have risen 44 per cent in the past year alone as "significant exposure" is said to have brought more people in.

Campaigners helped to save Abbey House Museum from being earmarked for closure.

placeholder image — Campaigners helped to save Abbey House Museum from being earmarked for closure.

Across the region, the figures from the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) show, some of Yorkshire's biggest settings drew more than five million visitors.

It marks an eight per cent annual increase in people accessing museums and galleries in the area, as they turn to local or free activities and as the cost of living crisis continues to bite.

In Leeds Dr David Hope is head of museum and gallery services, and he gave particular thanks to staff and volunteers for their "tireless" work.

"The extraordinary collections built by generations of local people are a precious resource and belong to every citizen," he said.

"We deeply appreciate public support as we continue to invest in making our museums and galleries even better.”

The most-visited attraction in the UK was London's Natural History Museum, last week's figures showed, topping 7.1m visitors last year in an all-time record.

The British Museum, Windsor Great Park and the Tate Modern all followed.

Now, in regional analysis, York's National Railway Museum (NRM) remains Yorkshire's top visitor attraction with more than 650,000 people attending last year.

RHS Harlow Carr, in Harrogate, took the second spot for highest visitor numbers while the third busiest went to Dalby Forest, also in North Yorkshire. York Minster, in fourth place, saw some 437,000 people attend.

Harewood House has proved one of the biggest winners in Yorkshire, after a brand new playground opened last April which it says has helped deliver a 24 per cent increase in visitor numbers.

And Bradford's National Science and Media Museum, despite being partially closed for refurbishment for a good part of the year, saw a boom under City of Culture.

In Leeds, visitors to Abbey House Museum - with its replica Victorian streets, shops, pub, and houses - rose to over 42,000 from 29,000 last year.

It comes after a voluntary group, Friends of the Leeds City Museums (FLCM), stepped up with vows to support the setting.

LCC's eight council-run museums and galleries collectively saw more than a million visitors in the year to December, representing a 16 per cent annual increase.

One "unprecedented" hit was a Miffy exhibition at Leeds City Museum, celebrating the Dutch rabbit, which saw visitor numbers rise by 25 per cent.

Coun Salma Arif, LCC's executive member for culture, said: “These incredible visitor numbers are a huge endorsement of our wonderful museums and galleries and the hard work, diligence and creativity of our curators, site teams and volunteers, who all contribute so much to creating such a fantastic experience for hundreds of thousands of people.

“It also speaks volumes about the boundless appetite people in Leeds and all over the world have for discovering more about history, culture and the arts as they come and explore our sites and world class collection."