About 23,000 people a year visit Ayscoughfee Hall Museum and the figure for the gardens is much higher, though impossible to determine accurately.
Museum officer Julia Knight and the museum staff have found the best way to get people into the museum is to increase the number of events held in the hall and gardens.
The house itself is licensed for weddings and there are regular art exhibitions in the Geest Gallery (Paul Smith, June 1-30).
In the gardens there are historical re-enactments by local history group 4 and 20 Blackbirds (Georgian pirate school, June 16), band concerts (May 26, June 2, 23 and 30), theatrical productions (July 12-13) and large scale events like craft fairs, wedding shows and the Feel Good Show.
This year, a brand new event has been planned, a 1940s Weekend on Saturday and Sunday, August 17 and 18.
Julia says: “It’s a privilege looking after this house. It gets under your skin, and that’s the same for all the staff here, so you feel as protective about it as you do about your own house.”
Ayscoughfee Hall received its Grade 1 listed status in early 2012.