A SEASIDE museum, which tells the story of one of the North-East's most infamous smugglers, has opened for its tenth season.

John Andrew was the landlord of the Ship Inn at Saltburn, east Cleveland, in the 1780s but used his position to smuggle goods in to the seaside town.

His story is recreated at the Saltburn Smugglers Museum, which reopened this week.

It hopes to mark its tenth season by welcoming its 250,000th visitor later in the summer.

A total of 17,495 visitors toured the Smugglers last year, its busiest year since 1996.

The centre also won the English Tourism Council's Quality Assured Visitor Attraction last year - a standard for cleanliness, signposting, staff helpfulness and quality of the attraction.

The museum includes interactive characters and a real "barrel of laughs" to transport people back to John Andrew's days.

Manager Jackie Hill said: "We think the museum is a little gem.

"We had a lot of repeat visitors last year, who hadn't been for quite a while.

"It would be lovely if we could see more of the people who came in our first year for our tenth year."

Opening hours are 10am until 6pm and admission is £1.90 for adults and £1.40 for children. A family ticket costs £5.50.

Further details can be obtained by calling the museum on (01287) 625252.