This year marks half a century since the Thursford Steam Engine Museum opened to the public, today drawing more than 110,000 visitors to its Christmas show each year.

But for more than two decades, the north Norfolk museum - the world's largest collection of steam engines and organs - has been running at a loss due to dwindling visitor numbers.

This year marks 50 years since the Thursford Steam Engine Museum opened to the public - but the museum has been running at a loss for the last two decades (Image: Supplied)

George Cushing Jr, Thursford's operations manager and grandson of the museum's founder, said the collection would no longer exist were it not for the annual success of its Christmas Spectacular, which now runs for six weeks over the festive period.

"Our Christmas Spectacular now keeps the place going throughout the year," he said.

"We would be non-existent as a steam engine museum without our Christmas activities propping it up, which has been the case for the last 20 years."

George Cushing, Thursford's operations manager and associate producer (Image: Supplied)

The show started in 1977 as a small carol concert organised by Mr Cushing's father, John Cushing, created to make up for the drop-off in visitors to the museum during the winter months.

Fast forward to today, and Thursford attracts audiences from all corners of the country.

John Cushing (centre), founder of the Thursford Christmas Spectacular, with his two sons, George (left) and Charlie Cushing (Image: Supplied)

Now, it is diversifying once again, partly due to a decline in the number of coaches coming to its shows since Covid.

"Around 45pc of our audience come by coach," Mr Cushing said. "So we rely heavily on them.

"But we have lost about 10,000 people coming by coach since 2021.

"Groups are often part of clubs, and a lot of them do annual trips to Norfolk to see the Christmas Spectacular. But many clubs never reformed after Covid."

Around 45pc of Thursford's audience travel to the show by coach (Image: Manuel Harlan)

Because of this, Thursford has had to increase its advertising and buy more land to expand its car park to accommodate extra vehicles.

John Cushing first created the Christmas show to unlock a new revenue stream for the museum during its quieter winter months, but now Thursford wants to boost its summer trade through various new ventures.

"In the winter, we used to rent a big marquee outside to handle the numbers for food and drinks," Mr Cushing said.

"But about 12 years ago, we realised all we ended up with was dead grass and a bill to rent the marquee.

"So we decided to purchase a solid, permanent marquee to do weddings in the summer. We now do 35 to 40 weddings a year from February through to August.

"Then we realised that we were losing a lot of weddings because we didn't have any accommodation. So we bought a place just over the road called Holly Lodge, which we converted into a seven-bedroom, luxury B&B. As soon as we did that, our wedding bookings increased."

Thursford's Holly Lodge Boutique B&B (Image: Supplied)

Last year, Thursford opened its Adventure Play Fair - a large outdoor children's play area with on-site catering, which cost around £3 million to build.

"We opened in August and welcomed more people in six weeks - about 25,000 - than we get at the museum in six months," Mr Cushing said.

The Thursford Adventure Play Fair (Image: Supplied)

Thursford invests around £800,000 back into the business each year.

In recent years, Thursford has spent £1 million on a new sound system, more than £500,000 on new lighting and sound desks, £150,000 on a sewer system and £100,000 on WiFi for customers.

Costumes alone for the show's 120-strong cast cost around £150,000 every year.

This year's Thursford Spectacular is currently being written ahead of the first show on November 10 (Image: Verity Johnson)

“A microphone for a singer and the transmitter is around £15,000 – and there are 80 of them in the show,” Mr Cushing said.

“Our insurance is £2,000 a week. Our organ chamber needed a new humidifier to stop the wood from drying out – that was £100,000. We even spent £100,000 on upgrading our old lights to LED bulbs.

“We employ up to 400 staff and we’ve had to put some cost onto our customers.

"But we're constantly investing to make the show and the overall Thursford experience better each year."

© Eastern Daily Press