IN our Millennium Press series of supplements chronicling the 20th century, we reproduced a photograph of the opening of York Castle Museum. What a sight. If the queue for Jorvik bumped into the line for the women's loos at Glastonbury, it would still not come close.

Families were standing four abreast in a queue that snaked from the Eye Of York round Clifford's Tower and beyond. Even though there were fewer distractions in 1938 - text messages back then were called letters - this was a remarkable response. Dr Kirk's folk museum had caught the imagination.

Yet it took Dr Kirk many years to persuade anyone that there was a demand for a permanent exhibition of his "collection of bygones". Pickering Council, given first dibs, turned down the idea. And York councillors took their time to see the benefits.

Eventually, however, they agreed to spend the equivalent of nearly a quarter of a million pounds to convert the debtors' prison. It was a big gamble. Only when councillors saw that enormous queue could they have been sure that it would pay off.

The recreation of long-gone Yorkshire streets, complete with authentic fixtures, fittings and packets of soap powder, has enthralled generations of children ever since. Kirkgate is a cobbled conveyor belt to the past. Umpteen postcards of Castle Museum in my childhood scrapbook attest to the spell it cast over me on repeated visits.

Those visits were in the 1970s, when the museum attracted more than 800,000 people a year. Today that figure has dropped to 320,000.

A million fewer feet now walk down Kirkgate every year. And yet the museum is still "England's most popular museum of everyday life". That demonstrates the fierceness of the competition for the tourist pound. These days, many families think nothing of jetting off abroad for a Bank Holiday weekend. Such an idea would have been thought fantastic back in the Seventies.

City of York Council, which owns the Yorkshire Museum, the Castle Museum and the Art Gallery, is wondering how to reverse the decline. Its first step is to hand over the running of these venues to an independent charitable trust.

This idea has some value. Trustees could look at the problems and potential of the museums through fresh eyes, freed from endless council reports. They would, I expect, make one early recommendation: the scrapping of the entrance fee to the art gallery. That was a crass miscalculation.

But the trustees' powers for change will be severely curtailed unless they can persuade the landlords to spend some money.

One reason why the Castle Museum's visitor numbers are not what they were is because the opening hours are shorter. In the early days, the doors were open until 5pm in the winter and 7.30pm in the summer. That compares to 4.30pm and 5pm respectively today.

If York is to establish itself as a place to stay, rather than a day-tripper's paradise, the city must sort out teatime. There is nothing for the tourist in between the shops closing and the nightlife beginning. This would change if the museums stayed open later, and the hours were properly advertised. But extra staff and a promotion campaign would cost money.

That cost is a piffling amount compared to what really ought to be spent on our museums, however. The Jorvik centre has shown the way. Like the Castle Museum, it was a pioneer in its field. Like the Castle, its numbers were dropping as people were lured to newer, rival attractions. Unlike the Castle its bosses have just spent millions on upgrading it, and the queues are back.

The Castle Museum has superb unseen collections, gathering dust in stores. If today's council was as brave as the one that agreed to launch the museum in the first place, they would build a new extension to the Castle - on what is earmarked for a shopping centre.