A change to the school curriculum in the UK could have a significant impact on Britain’s visitor attractions, with the new lesson plan for history axeing the likes of Henry VIII, the Victorians and World War Two, in favour of a broader sweep of subjects from ancient times to the modern day.

Former education secretary Michael Gove first enacted the plans, which see UK children at key stage one (aged five to seven) and two (aged seven to 11) studying a "broader sweep" of subjects. These lessons start at the Stone Age and then progress through history looking at major civilisations from around the world, including the likes of the Romans, Greeks and Vikings.

Big name attractions in the UK, such as the Black Country Living Museum near Birmingham, have actively campaigned against the changes, with the Black Country Museum motivated by the fact the a quarter of all visits to the facility annually comes from school trips – a similar story for many UK historical attractions.

One aspect that could benefit some museums is the introduction of a “local history” element to the the school curriculum, meaning schools can choose to study what happened during a specific time period such as the Tudor or Victorian times, as long as it relates to their local area.

While the change has hit a number of attractions, a small number of early history attractions have had school visit requests spike, with Stonehenge for example, seeing a rise of 35 per cent in school bookings and the Jorvik Viking Centre in York recording an increase of 79 per cent.

While the effects are great for some, the vast majority of independent museum sites (around 75 per cent) are based on history from the 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries – all of which have now been cut from the curriculum. English Heritage predicts museums will now have to alter investment into programmes, so that their attractions will still appeal and be relevant to schools.