VISITORS to a museum could in future pay to stay there overnight.

Consultants are recommending the council, which owns Kirkleatham Old Hall Museum, near Redcar, sells the listed building to a developer to turn into a hotel.

The museum would then move into the former stable blocks, which stand in the grounds of the country house.

The hall and other buildings in the adjacent village, which is mentioned in the Domesday Book, are on English Heritage's Buildings at Risk register - and represent the greatest concentration of historic buildings at risk in the North-East, outside Newcastle.

Consultants brought in by the council suggest turning the old hall and pavilion into an hotel and redeveloping the nursery into a garden centre.

Council leader Councillor David Walsh said: "The entire Kirkleatham site is one of this area's hidden historic gems.

"The hall and surrounding grounds and outbuildings are part of a classic country house complex and deserve to be protected for the enjoyment of future generations.''

He added: "Parts of the complex, including the stable block, have to be restored or they will be lost forever. We have a moral, as well as a legal, duty to protect these listed buildings and I believe that, with proper marketing and development, we can achieve this aim."

Councillors will be asked to agree to launch wide-ranging consultations on the regeneration of the hall and village at a meeting next week.

The museum, which opened in 1981, was closed for several months in 1999 for alterations costing £100,000, giving disabled people easier access to its main galleries on the first and second floors.