Mixed fortunes – attendance-wise – amongst our local museums and art galleries during 2012 according to Visit England’s annual Survey of Visits to Visitor Attractions.
Bristol Museum and Art Gallery heads the top twenty list of Free attractions with 1,1110,433 through the door. That’s up a massive 25.4 per cent on 2011.

Bath Abbey was fourth in the list with 420,000 and that is 6.5 per cent up on the 394,387 who visited in 2011.
The Holburne Museum was in l0th place with 115,864 – up 10 per cent on 2011 when 105,317 visited.
Bath’s Victoria Art Gallery was in thirteenth place with 103,275 which is down 6.5 per cent on the 110,500 recorded for 2011.
Turning to the top twenty Paid attractions we have Stonehenge at number one with 1,043,756 – that’s down 5.1 per cent on 2011.

The Roman Baths were third with 919,702 -which is 5.7 per cent down on the 975,096 who toured the Roman remains in 2011.
Brunel’s SS Great Britain in Bristol was in 19th place with 157,000 treading the deck – down 3.1 per cent on 162,000 in 2011.
Visit England say a combination of the London Olympics and bad weather took their toll that year with an overall reduction across the attractions board of one per cent.