A south Shropshire museum, which opened just two years ago, is very nearly the best place to visit in Britain according to 20,000 readers of a national magazine.

Stella and Dave Mitchell who run the Land of Lost Content Museum, in Craven Arms, were celebrating this week after they came second only to the Beamish Open Air Museum in County Durham in a readers' poll for Period Living and Traditional Homes magazine.

"Beamish is a huge place and well established," said Stella.

"This is fabulous news and we are delighted.

"We didn't know that anyone had been visiting us with this award in mind and it means we've beaten off places like Ironbridge and St Fagan's in Cardiff."

Stella, who says she has had problems with signposting, advertising in local authority publications, getting grant aid and more, couldn't resist a little dig at those she believes think her museum is unimportant.

"This shows it's time that people in local government here started to take us seriously," she said.

"Some think of me as a crazy old woman who collects stuff and doesn't know what she's doing. I know exactly what I'm doing.

"I wouldn't open our doors to the public if I didn't think we were the best."

The museum is constantly changing and new for 2005 is a 1960s-style coffee bar, a display dedicated to early Woolworth memorabilia and a much enlarged wartime section to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. The magazine's readers also gave a place in the Top 10 Museums to the Judge's Lodgings in Presteigne.