Top museums for fun days out
Museums offer something for everyone… history, education, workshops usually, a decent tea shop. They are a great way for familes to enjoy a day out together……grandparents, parents and the kids
Here is our round-up of the best museums for fun days out across the UK.
Beamish is a huge site with reconstructed houses, shops and buildings comparing the north-east in 1825 with the post-industrial period 100 years later. You can visit a colliery village with pit cottages and you can travel on a 1913 tram.
Bekonscot Model Village & Railway, Buckinghamshire
This is the world’s oldest model village, started as a hobby in over an acre of model houses, farms, fields and lakes, which are all linked by a model railway which travels through the gardens.
Black Country Living Museum, West Midlands
This vast open-air site is comprised of over 40 buildings and includes a pub chapel, 1920’s cinema and 1930’s fish and chip shop. You travel around the buildings by trolley buses and trams and there is a 35-minute tour into a mine, where you can try to imagine life as an 1850s miner.
Big Pit Mining Museum, Torfaen
Take a guided tour of the mine with a 300ft descent by pit cage down the mineshaft, wearing helmets and lamps, as well as seeing the winding engine house, blacksmith’s forge and fan house.
Honister Slate Mine Museum, Cumbria
This is one of the last working slate mines. The Infiniti Bridge crosses a 1,200ft gorge and there is a mine challenge, as well as a guided tour of the underground shafts and mountain activities.
Imperial War Museums, London and Manchester
Exploring life during the two World Wars and its impact on Britain, there are interactive exhibits. The museums offer a great opportunity for grandparents to tell their grandchildren about their own wartime experiences.
Ironbridge has ten 10 museums focusing on the Industrial Revolution. These include are Enginuity, a centre for science and technology with hands-on and Blists Hill, a reconstructed Victorian town, which takes old money on old shops . There is also a fairground.
Jorvik Viking Centre, North Yorkshire
Jorvik reconstructs life in Viking York, not excluding the smells! You can see the Coppergate Dig, a five-year excavation project, and Barley Hall, a medieval house, as well as a Disny-style rain ride through the Viking city of York.
National Marine Aquarium, Devon
Here you can see sharks, sea horses, turtles and exotic fish, as well as bass and pollack, rockpool rambles and dive shows.
National Railway Museums, North Yorkshire and County Durham
The museums are in York and Shildon, County Durham. Amongst many trains, you can see a Japanese bullet train, , Queen Victoria’s train carriage and the Mallard, which was at one time, the fastest steam train, as well as a model railway and train-ride simulator.
National Slate Museum, Gwynedd
Here you can visit original Victorian foundries and forges and see reconstructions of quarrymen’s cottages and the Chief Engineer’s House.
Weald & Downland Open Air Museum, West Sussex
There are tens of historic buildings, including a Victorian school and water mill. Traditional crafts are demonstrated daily.
