Beamish Museum is celebrating a near £1m windfall from the tax man.

The museum, near Stanley, has received a £961,181 payment for overpaid VAT dating back as far as 1990. Museum treasurers are now trying to recover interest on the sum, but are awaiting confirmation from Customs and Excise that it is applicable.

It brings the total refund from Customs, with previous interest, to £1.75m following a Treasury order in 1996 that exempted Beamish and other eligible museums from adding VAT on to entry charges.

Then a European Court rule stated the exemption should date back to 1990. The museum received £711,421, plus £82,198 interest, covering the three years after June 1994, in July 1997.

But the latest refund, spanning the four years prior to 1994, has only been paid after museum treasurers pursued the issue with Customs and Excise. Beamish deputy director John Gall paid tribute to the persistence of treasurer Ian White and his team.

"It's super that it's happened. Christmas has come early. God bless Customs and Excise!

"Ian and his staff have done a great job pulling this together and ensuring it wasn't forgotten.

"It's very nice to have it back and it will be sensibly invested in people's future and their heritage here at Beamish."