The Black Country Living Museum, in the West Midlands has announced losses of almost £600,000 as visitor numbers saw a drop of 50,000 people over the course of a year.

The museums annual accounts up to the end of 2012 showed a fall in attendance of 16 per cent compared with 2011.

The net loss of all funds after looking at depreciation charges, reduced donation and investment, restructuring costs and a pension fund adjustment was £599,745

The museum was forced to cut 26 members of staff in 2012, including four compulsory redundancies as well as closing twice a week between November and Easter in an effort to save £250,000 annually.

The museum had seen visitor numbers rise in 2011, which was heavily promoted as the year of the 'staycation' but Black Country Museum chair, John Hughes, said that the effects of that had "ebbed away."

Last year the museum lost a £70,000 a year grant from Dudley Council as the authority was also forced to make cuts, but the museum was recently awarded £157,000 in arts funding as part of a government-backed Arts