A THEATRE, cinema and hotel could be built as part of a £30m redevelopment of award-winning Beamish Museum.

Consultants have drawn up a five-year blueprint aimed at boosting visitor numbers to the North-East heritage museum site, as well as creating 380 jobs.

About 320,000 people visit the museum a year at the moment, but the new plan, The Prospect of Beamish, is aimed at increasing the annual attendance to about half-a-million.

New facilities suggested by specialists Prince Research Consultants (PRC) include an enlarged reception/visitor centre, an interactive area, further exhibition space, and an expansion of the Town Street site with a theatre, cinema and restaurant, plus a "warts-and-all" slum area, all set in the year 1913.

Further new features for the 300-acre site, near Stanley, County Durham, include a Beamish Wild educational centre, and Hands-On Beamish, a small centre dedicated to exploring the science behind some of the exhibits.

A transport service to supplement the existing tramways would be introduced at peak times.

Other proposals include an on-site hotel, with up to 300 beds, alongside the expanded car park, capable of taking up to 2,000 cars and 50 coaches.

Cash could come from the EU, the Heritage Lottery Fund, plus central and local government.

The consultants aim to build on what Beamish has done well over its 30-plus year history, giving a snapshot interpretation of the region as it was in the 1820s and in 1913.

PRC said Beamish's mission is: "To present, in a dynamic museum, the social history of the people of the North-East of England, and to ensure that visitors are engaged, informed, entertained, educated and become our best advocate".

A detailed feasibility study will be carried out before the governing committee decide to act on any of the recommendations.