Free admission is to be revived at Bradford's Industrial Museum, home of the city's mill heritage.

The £2 entrance charge - imposed two years ago - has led to a plunge crash in visitor numbers, down to nearly a quarter of their previous level.

And now Bradford Council is to abolish the charges at the museum in Moorside Road, Eccleshill, in a bid to woo back the crowds.

Councillors are due to vote on Friday to axe the admission charges from April 1 - although visitors will have to pay for horse-drawn tram rides.

Councillor Danny Mangham, deputy chairman of the leisure services committee, said: "We are committed to making our museums accessible and entertaining as well as informative.

"Without the museum, part of my heritage, and the heritage of all Bradfordians would have been lost forever.

"The wealth of the city was created by people who worked in the mills and lived in back-to-back houses. It is up to us to make sure that as many people as possible can enjoy the museum."

The Industrial Museum, which opened in 1974, displays the social and industrial history of Bradford and has exhibits of working textile machinery, engineering and Jowett cars.

In 1991, facilities were enhanced when recreated back to back cottages, the ever-popular Horses at Work and tram rides were opened.

Attendance peaked at more than 170,000 visitors per year in 1994-5 but once the £2 admission charge was introduced in 1996, numbers crashed.

Over the past year, there have been just 47,108 visitors - a nine-year low.

Bradford Council hopes that by removing the admission fee, visitor numbers will rise again, boosting income in the museum shop.

Last year as an experiment, entrance charges were lifted during the museum's annual two-day Christmas Fair, and more than 3,500 people flocked in.

Lifting the charges at the Industrial Museum will mean that all five Bradford Council-run museums once again have free admission: Cartwright Hall and Bolling Hall in Bradford, Cliffe Castle Museum in Keighley, the Manor House, Ilkley, and the Bracken Hall Countryside Centre, Baildon.

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