ALL the pieces are in place, the clock is counting down - all that North Yorkshire's latest big tourist attraction needs to complete the picture is the expected influx of Easter visitors.

HOME COMFORTS: The sitting room at The World of James Herriot at Thirsk Picture by Garry Atkinson

But Stuart Gill, manager of the £1.4 million World of James Herriot centre at Thirsk, said he would pay well anyone who could tell him accurately how many people would be coming to its doors on opening day.

"It's all going to start on Monday, March 29 - that's D-Day," he said, adding that it was the culmination of a lot of hard work.

"I'm really excited about the opening. It's been a long time in coming - the project itself has been running for about three years, I'm a relative newcomer."

Visitors entering the centre, based in the former surgery in Kirkgate used by the real Herriot - vet Alf Wight - and an adjoining building which has been incorporated, will come first to restored 1940s rooms including the sitting room used by Herriot and his partner Siegfried (Donald Sinclair in reality).

Last month that was the room nearest completion, but things have moved on since then. "Other than dotting the odd 'I' we are very nearly there," said Mr Gill.

Also on the ground floor there is the dispensary, a traditional country kitchen, a television "studio" and a farm fold full of agricultural artefacts.

A lot of the recent transformation has been upstairs, where the emphasis switches from Herriot's life and stories to veterinary science and animal physiology.

Here the rooms include a "visible farm" with diagrams of the internal workings of animals, and the veterinary medicine room containing some of the thousands of artefacts donated by practices across the country, including old-fashioned anaesthetic equipment.

Visitor numbers are expected to be high, given the amount of interest expressed in the centre, much of it from abroad.

"It's going to be a busy Easter, but we're looking forward to it tremendously," said Mr Gill.

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