The number of tourists visiting Blenheim Palace dropped last year, according to a new survey.

A poll of popular British attractions, by the English Tourism Council, showed Blenheim, the Woodstock home of the Duke of Marlborough, pulled in 422,816 visitors in 1999, compared to 438,976 in 1998 - a drop of four per cent.

The reduction, which is reflected in attractions nationwide including the Tower of London and Canterbury Cathedral, is being put down to the strong pound and fewer visitors from overseas.

English Tourism Council chief executive Mary Lynch said: "A number of historic properties have had a tough year, with the strong pound and falling overseas visitor numbers affecting many of the popular ones."

But the drop has not been confined to nationally-renowned stops on the tourist trail. Other local attractions are also reporting drops in the number of people coming through their gates.

Carol Nightingale, site manager at Cogges Farm, near Witney, said: "We have had a slight drop in visitor figures. The numbers up to the end of March, which is the end of our year, were down about the same as Blenheim's."

She put the low visitor numbers down to bad weather.

Cotswold Wildlife Centre, near Burford, also saw a drop in the number of visitors during 1999, with bosses at the outdoor attraction also putting it down to poor weather.

Cotswold Wildlife Park financial controller Bob Hiscoke said: "In the 12 months up to February, we had 320,000 visitors compared to 330,000 the year before, because of the dreadful weather.

"But the figures have gone up a bit this year."

Another Oxfordshire attraction which has suffered is Didcot Railway Centre, which has also seen a drop of between 4.5 per cent and five per cent in visitors.

Roger Whittle, from the centre, said: "We are putting this down to competition between tourist attractions." He added that the centre also had around 10,000 society members, who are admitted free and not included in official visitor statistics.

One local attraction which is bucking the trend is Broughton Castle, which attracted 2,000 more visitors than usual last year, as the castle was used to film many scenes for the hit film Shakespeare in Love. Owner Lord Saye and Sele said: "Last year we got a very substantial number of visitors because of Shakespeare in Love. "We had something like 16,000 visitors, and in 1998 we had 14,000."