Warwick Castle boss confident despite rising costs

Nick Blofeld said Warwick Castle was exploring solar energy as a way of cutting its energy costs

Bosses at Warwick Castle say they are confident of avoiding the same fate as Nottingham Castle which closed to visitors in November.

The trust running the East Midlands site went into liquidation 18 months after it reopened following a £30m revamp.

Warwick Castle's Nick Blofeld admitted that with the cost-of-living crisis it was a tough time for such attractions.

"It's quite tricky to make good money," he said of the heritage industry.

"Because we're spread across different sectors, we're not just reliant on hospitality, it's the whole broader leisure."

When it closed, Nottingham Castle Trust said visitor numbers were well below the 300,000 per year it had targeted when reopening.

But Mr Blofeld said Warwick was focused on bringing in income at key times in the year to cover quieter periods.

"We don't make so much money when we are quiet in the middle of winter but we really focus on the family market, the school holidays," he told BBC Radio CWR.

Rising energy costs had also forced the attraction, owned by Merlin Entertainments, to explore alternative ways of generating power, he explained.

"We're exploring solar - could we do something on the roof?" he said.

"We've even talked about the weir - could we have an Archimedes screw so we are looking at creative solutions?"