After 30 or so years you would have thought the message would have got through to local government that if you offer a tourist service in a tourist service area, that you need to be open when you are needed. i.e. bank holidays, weekends etc. Not a Wednesday morning in the first week of February. Why do I say 30 years? Well probably the first, and worst, example. Politically a new look, Thatcher and all that. The Lowther, a private girls school in Bodelwyddan, had closed. So, partially to preserve the building, the Council (I imagine Clwyd) decided to dip their toes in the murky waters of commercialism. They bought it. Big fanfairs of trumpets. In October. Spent all winter working on making it into a tourist attraction. Renamed Bodelwyddan Castle. What excitement when it opened on April second. Two weeks later, what a storm of abuse. Easter came and went, visitors scrambled to have a look at this new attraction, but, what happened. It was closed.
At the inquest afterwards the Council said that all their employees from top to bottom took it for granted that they worked a 9 - 5 5day week, and definately off on Bank holidays. Bodelwyddan Castle was now council owned and operated and in never occured to ANYONE that it should be open. End of story.