Museums, Galleries & Exhibitions

THE ARCHITECTURE CENTRE
Narrow Quay, Bristol BS1 4QA. Zone A. Open Tue-Fri 11am-5pm, Sat-Sun 12noon-5pm, admission free. Ffi: 0117 922 1540, www.architecturecentre.co.uk • Set up to promote architecture, there’s always something interesting going on here, with regularly changing exhibitions, workshops and talks, and plenty of food for thought about the spaces we live in. The centre’s small shop is brilliant – full of design/innovation-led gifts, jewellery and toys that you’re not going to find anywhere else round these parts, plus loads of big books with pictures in (of buildings, mostly).

ARNOLFINI
Narrow Quay, Bristol BS1 4QA. Zone A. Galleries open Tues-Sun 10am-6pm, bookshop open Tues-Sun 10am-8pm, closes 6pm Tues & Weds, open BHMs, admission to galleries free; phone or see website for performance and other events. Ffi: 0117 917 2300, www.arnolfini.org.uk • A much-loved (and sometimes much-derided by the call-that-art-my-rottweiler-could-paint-better-than-that brigade) local institution which was in the forefront of the revival of Bristol’s thriving harbourside back in the day. The ’Fini is one of Britain’s leading centres for contemporary arts, with galleries and performance spaces and a cinema that tends to show art/independent movies. Also very trendy cafe/bar. Well worth a visit as it’s always got something provocative going on.

EXPLORE AT-BRISTOL
Anchor Square, Harbourside, Bristol BS1 5DB. Zone A. Open 10am-5pm Mon-Fri in term-time, 10am-6pm Sat, Sun, BHMs and during school holidays, admission: £10.80 adult/£7 ages 3-15/£9 conc/£30.90 family (2+2 or 1 adult + 3 children). Ffi: 0845 345 1235, www.at-bristol.org.uk • One of the South West’s leading family attractions, and great fun it is, too. This is a hands-on science centre that encourages visitors to play with stuff, push buttons, pull levers and generally mess around, in order to learn about scientific and technical principles all the way from engineering through to the human body. There’s also the Planetarium with regular shows telling you what you’ll see in the night sky at whatever time of season you visit. Even if you’ve visited before, it’s worth a return trip; this spring sees the addition of 30 new hands-on exhibits, including magnetic sound shapes and the chance to blow really, really big bubbles. July will see the opening of a new section called Animate-It, courtesy of Bristol’s own Aardman Animations. Plus an extensive timetable of activities, talks and demonstrations, particularly things aimed at kids during school holiday times.

THE BAKELITE MUSEUM
Orchard Mill, Williton, Somerset TA4 4NS. Zone D. Open 10.30am-6pm Wed-Sun and every day during school holidays, admission £4 adult/£3.50 concessions/£2.50 age 6-16. Ffi: 01984 632133 www.bakelitemuseum.co.uk • For those of you not paying attention when your grandparents were reminiscing, Bakelite, invented by Dr Leo Baekeland in 1907, was the world’s first synthetic plastic, though it really came into its own in the 1920s and 30s, and will forever be associated with brown valve radios and all manner of other household goods. The Museum, which is housed in an old watermill is packed with all manner of products made from this splendidly versatile material – toasters, cookers, washing machines, clocks, tableware, not to mention televisions, gramophones, radios and telephones. There’s even a set of Bakelite teeth, and a Bakelite coffin (unsuitable for cremation). Not just for nostalgic oldies, but also dead interesting for anyone with an eye for design. The Museum also offers the chance to take holidays in 1930s caravans.

BATH POSTAL MUSEUM
27 Northgate St, Bath BA1 1AJ. Zone A. Open Mon-Sat 11am-5pm, admission £3.50 adult/£3 senior & B&NES residents/£1.50 child/£10 family. Ffi: 01225 460333, www.bathpostalmuseum.org • Relocated a couple of years ago to underneath Bath’s main post office, this small but perfectly formed place should not be missed when you’re busily taking in all the big attractions in Bath. For Bath, you see, played a leading role in the development of the British postal system, and this place uses a range of museum pieces (you’ve got to love those lacy Victorian Valentine cards!), as well as state-of-the-art interactive electronics to trace the history of 4,000 years’ worth of communications.

BLAISE CASTLE HOUSE MUSEUM
Henbury Rd, Henbury, Bristol BS10 7QS. Zone A. Open Sat-Wed 10am-5pm (hours may change from Oct), admission free. Ffi: 0117 903 9818, www.bristol.gov.uk/museums • A handsome 18th-century mansion house that’s home to a wonderful, and rather unappreciated museum of domestic life and social history in bygone Bristol. Displays include children’s toys and board games, cooking ranges, baths, toilets, wash-tubs, fireplaces, not to mention Victorian costumes and a Victorian school room. If you’re visiting in a family group, make sure you bring the grandparents along to explain the full horror of life before the days of microwave ovens, ensuite bathrooms, washing machines and central heating. This place offers what’s probably Bristol’s best free-of-charge family day out, as it’s surrounded by the massive expanses of Blaise Castle Estate (400 acres), and there’s a very good playground next to it, too, plus a rather snazzy café.

BRISTOL BLUE GLASS
Unit 7, Whitby Rd, Brislington, Bristol BS4 3QF. Zone A. Open Mon-Sat 9am-5pm, Sun 11am-4pm, shop admission free, tours of glass factory £4 per person. Ffi: 0117 972 0818, www.bristol-glass.co.uk • The world-famous Bristol Blue Glass has been made in the city since the 17th century, but in recent years the brand has undergone a major revival. Now you can visit the factory and its visitor centre and browse around the shop, which offers what it reckons is the largest selection of glass (blue and otherwise) in the South West. You can watch people working on the factory floor and look around the small but excellent set of museum and glass technology displays.

BRISTOL CITY MUSEUM & ART GALLERY
Queens Rd, Clifton, Bristol BS8 1RL. Zone A. Open daily 10am-5pm to Oct when hours might change, admission free. Ffi: 0117 922 3571, www.bristol.gov.uk/museums • Bristol’s main museum, with good collections on local geology, local prehistory, local and world wildlife, a bit of local history and a very good cross-section of paintings, with a side-order of lots of work by the famous 19th-century ‘Bristol School’ as well as more modern stuff by the likes of Richard Long and Beryl Cook. There’s also a large collection of stuffed animals, some of which are looking a bit frayed nowadays. Everyone’s favourite bit, the fascinating Egyptology collection, with mummies and everything, got a refurb last year, and boasts a new display and interpretation space. Bristolians tend to take this place for granted, but it’s extremely well run and has lots of regularly changing temporary exhibitions, plus plenty of talks and holiday-time children’s activities. Look out also for the Sunday Fundays – the first Sunday of each month is given over to children’s activities. There’s also a restaurant/café and the souvenir shop has a good collection of local historical material, including books and posters. New for this year will be an improved under-5s play area, and, from the autumn, a new interactive gallery.

BRUNEL’S SS GREAT BRITAIN
Great Western Dockyard, Gas Ferry Rd, Bristol BS1 6TY. Zone A. Open daily throughout the year, 1 Apr-23 Oct 10am-5.30pm (slightly earlier closing in winter), admission £10.95 adult/£8.50 concs/£5.95 child. Family discount tickets also available at various rates, including ‘Grandparent Family’ and ‘Mini Family’. Tickets entitle holder to unlimited return visits for one year. Ffi: 0117 929 1843, www.ssgreatbritain.org • Probably Bristol’s leading tourist attraction, festooned with awards and quite right, too. The world’s first great ocean liner, and the forerunner of all modern ships, the ss Great Britain, was designed and built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in Bristol. Not only was she the first ocean-going ship with an iron hull, she was also the first big steamship to be driven by a screw propeller (rather than paddles). The most successful of Brunel’s ships, she led a long and thoroughly useful career, ending up as a storage hulk on the Falkland Islands before being brought home in 1970 to end up in the very dock in which she was built. Since then, she’s undergone a long, slow process of preservation and restoration. The Brunel 200 celebrations in 2006 saw the completion of some pretty dramatic improvements. There’s now a dehumidification chamber around her hull to stop it rusting away; the roof of this is made of glass and has a couple of inches of water on it, giving the impression that she’s afloat. You can actually walk under it and get up close to the hull. On board, there are mannequins, sights, sounds and, yes, even smells to tell the stories of some of the people who travelled on her as you walk around with your personal audio-guide. Below decks you can also see the replicas of her vast Victorian engines. You can look all over her, from the massive engine room to cramped cabins, the Promenade Deck and the sumptuous First Class dining saloon. There’s also a museum alongside the ship itself, which invites visitors to step back in time through the ship’s history and test their skills on giant interactives. The ship also hosts loads of special living history events, ranging from the Victorian surgeon to frequent visits from Mr Brunel himself, especially during the school holidays. Check the website for details. And if all this isn’t enough, the replica of Cabot’s ship The Matthew is often moored in the docks next to the ship; if she’s there, your admission entitles you to go aboard and take a look. (See Trains, Boats & Planes section.) And if she’s not there, remember your ss Great Britain ticket entitles you to as many free return visits as you like during the year. Pretty much a must-see, then.

THE BUILDING OF BATH MUSEUM
Countess of Huntingdon’s Chapel, The Vineyards, The Paragon, Bath BA1 5NA. Zone A. Open Sat-Mon & BHMs 10.30am-5pm, admission £4 adult/£3.50 senior, student, unwaged/£2 ages 6-16. Ffi: 01225 333895, www.bath-preservation-trust.org.uk • Using models, maps, paintings, reconstructions and interactive electronics, it looks in detail at why Bath was built and how it was done. That’s everything from types of stone and brick down to how rooms were decorated and furnished. Perhaps most interesting are the bits where it tells you about the interaction of social standing, morality and manners with architecture and design.

CHELTENHAM ART GALLERY & MUSEUM
Clarence St, Cheltenham GL50 3JT. Zone D. Open daily Apr-Oct 10am-5pm (opens 11am first Thurs of each month), closed BHMs, admission free (but donations welcome). Ffi: 01242 237431, www.cheltenhammuseum.org.uk • There are plenty of good reasons to visit Cheltenham, but this is one of the best as it’s quite a treat for art-lovers. Features an impressive collection of 17th- and 18th-century British and Dutch paintings. Also an excellent British 20th-century paintings collection with work by the likes of Vanessa Bell, Paul Nash and Stanley Spencer. Star attraction is the superb and well thought-out and displayed collection of Arts & Crafts movement furniture and design, whose only rival is that at London’s V&A. An essential reference for anyone interested in English taste.

COLERIDGE COTTAGE
35 Lime St, Nether Stowey, nr Bridgwater, Somerset TA5 1NQ. Zone D. Open Thurs-Sun from 2 Apr-27 Sept 2-5pm, admission £3.90 adult/£1.90 child. Ffi: 01278 732662, www.nationaltrust.org.uk • This small, austere place is where STC moved with wife Sara and son Hartley in 1797 when the poet’s fortunes were approaching destitution. It’s also where he got some of his best work done, including ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’, ‘Frost at Midnight’ and, of course, ‘Kubla Khan’. The small museum includes a fair bit of Coleridge memorabilia, pictures, manuscripts, a lock of the man’s hair, his sword and inkstand, and very enthusiastic National Trust attendants. It’s not worth the pilgrimage from Bristol/Bath unless you’re an STC fan, or if you’re combining a visit with some exploration of this beautiful, remote and very undervalued part of west Somerset.

CORINIUM MUSEUM
Park St, Cirencester, Glos GL7 2BX. Zone D. Open Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun & BHMs 2-5pm, admission £4.25 adult/£3.50 senior/£2.75 student over 16/£2.25 ages 5-16/£11.50 family. Ffi: 01285 655611, www.cotswold.gov.uk/go/museum • Corinium being the Roman name for Cirencester which was one of the most important towns in Roman England (one reason for its prosperity was that the local tribe, the Dobunni, were collaborationist stooges who surrendered to the Roman invaders before they even arrived and appear to have reaped a lot of rewards for doing so) and which even now lies at the centre of a web of Roman remains. This is a very fine museum reopened a few years back after a major refurb and has won loads of awards. For the most part, it showcases the history of the area from Roman to medieval times, accompanied by some of the vast wealth of archaeological finds in the area. It’s also very good with children, with lots of interactive fun stuff. Everyone’s favourite bit seems to be ‘Mrs Getty’, an Anglo-Saxon woman who was buried nearby along with an opulent collection of grave goods; a model of her reconstructed head is now one of the museum’s star attractions.

DEAN HERITAGE CENTRE
Camp Mill, Soudley, Glos GL14 2U. Zone D. Open daily March-Oct 10am-5pm (closes 4pm Nov-Feb), admission £4.90 adult/£4.20 conc/£2.50 age 5-16/£14 (2 adults + up to 4 children). Ffi: 01594 822170, www.deanheritagemuseum.com • The Forest is Dean is, to be sure, a wonderful thing, but also very confusing if you want to explore all its many attractions and leisure facilities but don’t know where to start. This is as good a place as any to begin, an old water mill which traces the story of the Forest from ancient times through medieval hunting, free-miners, the industrial revolution and onwards. It’s in a nice setting, with a picnic area and woodland walks and trails nearby.

FRANKIE HOWERD MUSEUM
Wavering Down House, Webbington Rd, Cross, nr Axbridge, Somerset BS26 2EL. Zone C. 2009 opening days confirmed so far: 12 & 13 April, 21 June, 2 Aug, 10.30am-4.30pm, admission £5 adult/£2.50 child. Ffi: 01934 732013, www.frankiehowerdobetrust.org • The detached house and gardens of the late comedian and actor Frankie Howerd OBE have been preserved as he left them. In the gardens you can see the fig tree presented by Sir Winston Churchill or pay your last respects at the burial place of – titter ye not! – Frankie’s wig. The house contains thousands of Frankie’s possessions, including pictures of him with all his showbiz pals and some real curiosities, such as a fossilised egg from Pompeii presented to him by the Italian government after he made the movie ‘Up Pompeii’, or a desk that once belonged to Lord Kitchener, which Howerd bought at an auction. Also hosts occasional open-air concerts in aid of local charities. Not all dates were fully confirmed as we went to press, so see website for details of others.

FRENCHAY VILLAGE MUSEUM
Begbrook Park, Frenchay, Bristol BS16 1SZ. Zone A. Open Sat, Sun & BHMs 2-5pm, Wed 1-4pm, admission free. Ffi: 0117 957 0942, www.frenchay.org • You might think it’s just a suburb of Bristol, but Frenchay is an old village with some really interesting history. This small but enthusiastically-run museum tells the story of the Quakers, particularly the Fry family, and other aspects of the village’s history, taking in things like the founding of the Christian Socialist movement and, naturally, the story of Frenchay Hospital. Donations welcome.

THE GEORGIAN HOUSE
7 Great George St, Clifton, Bristol BS1 5RR. Zone A. Open Sat-Wed 10am-5pm (hours may change in Oct), admission free. Ffi: 0117 921 1362, www.bristol.gov.uk/museums • In the 1790s, this was the home of West India merchant John Pinney, a man who made his pile in sugar from plantations in the West Indies worked by slave labour. At the time, this was a very prestigious address, up on the hill and away from the smells, noise and proles living around the docks. He retired to this place to become one of the local great and good once he’d made his fortune, and among his retinue was a young black man named Pero (now memorialised in the form of the distinctive horned bridge in the harbour). So the house has two functions – to show what a wealthy Bristol home of the 1790s would look like (including an amazing plunge-bath in the basement and the servants’ quarters), and to house exhibitions on sugar and slavery. It’s a huge space and hardly ever gets swamped with visitors, but well worth a look.

GLENSIDE HOSPITAL MUSEUM
UWE Glenside Campus, Stapleton, Bristol BS16 1DD. Zone A. NB: Currently closed for repairs, but due to reopen in May or June 2009 – check website for details. When it re-opens, it’s open Sat & Wed only, 10am-noon, admission free. Ffi: email glensidemuseum@hotmail.com or website at www.glensidemuseum.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk • Now part of the University of the West of England, this site was originally a lunatic asylum back in Victorian times, later becoming the famous Glenside Hospital, which pioneered various psychiatric and neurological treatments. This wonderful, cluttered place now contains various pictures, paintings and artefacts from Bristol’s psychiatric and learning disability hospitals and the Burden Institute, which to this day means Bristol is a world leader in treating neurological illnesses. Most of the material was collected by the late Dr Donal Early, who was a consultant at the Glenside from the 1950s. The Museum is housed in the old Glenside Chapel, which dates back to 1861. Things to look out for include some early ECT machines, and some very moving paintings by Dennis Reed, who was a patient at Glenside in the 1950s.

HAYNES INTERNATIONAL MOTOR MUSEUM
Sparkford, nr Yeovil, Somerset BA22 7LH. Zone D. Open daily 9.30am-5.30pm, admission £7.95 adult/£6.95 concs/£4.25 ages 4-15/£10.95 1 adult + 1 child/£25.75 family (2 adults + 3 children). Ffi: 01963 440804, www.haynesmotormuseum.com • If you’re a particular type of bloke, this place will need no introduction. But for everyone else… You know those manuals that show you how to take apart/tinker with/fix different types of car? Well, the company that produces them started out in Yeovil, and some of the Haynes Manual fortune was put to good use building up this here collection of old vehicles (over 300 cars, plus about 50 motorbikes), one of the finest in Europe. Now, obviously, this place is petrolhead heaven, what with all those Daimlers, Bentleys, Jags, Rollers and Aston Martins, but the folks who run the place tell us that the real favourites with most visitors are the workaday old cars that we, our parents and grandparents used to drive round in. Aside from the cars there’s lots of fun stuff for kids: play area, driving arcade games through the ages, a go-kart track and ‘Super Diggers’ – miniature JCBs with which you can dig holes and shift sand. The museum also hosts a busy calendar of events through the year, including stunt shows.

HERSCHEL MUSEUM OF ASTRONOMY
19 New King St, Bath BA1 2BL. Zone A. Open Mon-Fri (NB: closed Wed) 1-5pm, Sat, Sun & BHMs 11am-5pm, admission £4 adult/£3.50 senior/£3 student/£2.50 child. Ffi: 01225 446865, www.bath-preservation-trust.org.uk • William Herschel was the 18th-century equivalent of a session musician who moved to Bath because that’s where the gigs were. He was assisted by his sister Caroline, who worked as his housekeeper and was herself an accomplished musician. In their spare time, they looked at the stars… And discovered Uranus, whose name has delighted schoolboys (and many adults) ever since. This small museum, set in the house where this remarkable duo lived, is done out in appropriate period style. It tells you all about the Herschels’ lives and works, and features an auditorium (the Star Vault) where you can take a virtual-reality trip through the solar system.

HOLBURNE MUSEUM OF ART
Great Pulteney St, Bath BA2 4DB. Ffi:www.bath.ac.uk/holburne • Closed for the rest of 2009 while undergoing a major restoration project, and the addition of a new extension. Due to re-open in the spring or early summer of 2010.

JANE AUSTEN CENTRE
40 Gay St, Bath BA1 2NT. Zone A. Open daily 9.45am-5.30pm (shorter hours in winter, and open til 7pm Thurs-Sat in July & Aug), admission £6.95 adult/£5.50 senior & student/£3.95 ages 6-15/£18 family. Ffi: 01225 443000, www.janeausten.co.uk • It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen detested Bath, but nonetheless, she lived here for five years in the early 1800s, and two of her novels – ‘Northanger Abbey’ and ‘Persuasion’ – are partly set in Bath. There is a massive global Jane Austen industry, mostly appealing to ladies of a certain class and age, and if you’re going to have all these tourists passing through Bath, you might as well tap into the Austen dollar with a museum of her time here. The building has no direct connection with her (though she did briefly live in the same street for a few months in 1805). The centre also runs walking tours of Austen’s Bath and helps to organise the annual Jane Austen Festival (this year, 18-27 Sept). You can also visit the Regency Tea Rooms upstairs for Austen-themed refreshments.

THE EDWARD JENNER MUSEUM
Berkeley, Glos GL13 9BN. Zone B. Open Tue-Sat & BHMs 12.30-5.30pm, Sun 1-5.30pm from 1 Apr-30 Sept and open every day in June-Aug, admission £4.80 adult/£4 senior & student/£2.50 ages 5-18/£12 family. Ffi: 01453 810631, www.jennermuseum.com • Edward Jenner pioneered smallpox vaccination making him one of the single most important figures in medical history, but he always shunned the limelight. He preferred to spend most of his career as a simple country doctor, living at this house in the shadow of Berkeley Castle. It’s well worth a look if you’re in the vicinity as it’s not just about Jenner’s life and times, but also aims to promote a greater understanding of the science of immunology. They’re planning some events for 2009’s 260th anniversary of his birth.

KINGSWOOD HERITAGE MUSEUM
Tower Lane, Warmley, Bristol BS30 8XT. Zone A. Open Tue, Sun & BHMs 2-5pm from May-Sept, with shorter hours in winter, admission £2 or £2 for museum and grounds tour which takes place on the second Sunday of each month, BHM admission is £2.50, under-12s get into all events free. Ffi: 0117 960 5664, www.kingswoodmuseum.org.uk • One of the most interesting and undervalued museums in the region, done by the people for the people. Nothing in the area comes nearly as close to bringing you into contact with the start of the Industrial Revolution in Bristol and showing you the lives of ordinary working people. It’s a huge, ramshackle building tracing Kingswood’s astonishingly rich industrial and social history from medieval bandits and 18th-century zinc smelting to the birth of Methodism and on to pin making, motorcycles (Kingswood was home to the Douglas firm), copper, shoes and more. Where else can you see a 1930s newsreel of the Kleeneze brush factory and then look at a typical working-class living room of the 1950s? If that’s not enough, go on a day when they’re offering guided tours of the amazing grotto – built with the by-products of the zinc industry – and the acres of grounds out the back, originally the estates of the 18th-century Quaker industrialist who started it all.

MUSEUM OF BATH AT WORK
Julian Rd, Bath BA1 2RH. Zone A. Open daily from 10.30am, last admission 4.30pm from 1 Apr-31 Oct, weekends only in winter, admission £4.50 adult/£3.50 child, senior, student/£10 family. Ffi: 01225 318348, www.bath-at-work.org.uk • This charming, slightly eccentric place is the perfect antidote to the surfeit of twee age-of-elegance-Jane-bloody-Austen bollocks that Bath exudes in order to relieve the tourists of their cash. The fact is, for every big shot who’s ever lived in the city, there was an army of regular working stiffs like thee and me. This museum traces the surprisingly large range of local industries, from gas to stone, construction, cabinet making, dockside-crane manufacture, cars, fuller’s earth and – oh yes! – Plasticine. As it’s based in the premises of Victorian engineer JB Bowler, who made a small fortune selling what back then was called ‘aerated water’, it also prides itself on being able to tell you the history of fizzy drinks.

FASHION MUSEUM & ASSEMBLY ROOMS
Bennett St, Bath BA1 2QH. Zone A. Open daily 10.30am-5pm to 31 Oct, shorter hours in winter, admission £7 adult/£6.25 concs/£5 ages 6-16/£20 family. Combined ticket also giving admission to Roman Baths £14.50 adult/£12.50 concs/£8.70 child/£40 family (2 adults + up to 4 children). Admission free for B&NES Council area residents with Discovery Card. Ffi: 01225 477785, www.fashionmuseum.co.uk • The artist formerly known as The Museum of Costume had a refurb and a relaunch a couple of years back, and excellent it is, too. Ought to be looked over by anyone who’s ever worn clothes, basically. The permanent collection shows the history of fashionable dress from the last few hundred years, including a gallery of corsets and crinolines (adults and children can try some of them on), and a ‘Dress of the Year’ chosen especially by fashion experts for the museum every year since its foundation in 1963. Regular special exhibitions, too. Even hairy-chested chaps who profess no interest whatever in clothes find the place more interesting than they anticipate. Your visit has the added bonus that, as long as there aren’t any functions going on, your ticket gets you into the splendid Assembly Rooms, where the crème de la crème got together in days of yore for such racy pursuits as dancing, card-playing and tea-drinking.

MUSEUM OF EAST ASIAN ART
12 Bennett St, Bath BA1 2QJ. Zone A. Open Tue-Sat & BHMs 10am-5pm, Sun 12noon-5pm, closed Mon, admission £5 adult/£4 senior/£3.50 student and children aged 12+/£2 ages 6-12/£12 family. Ffi: 01225 464640, www.meaa.org.uk • A fabulous collection of art and crafts from China, Japan, Korea and south-east Asia, dating from around 5000BC to the present day. Founded in 1993, the Museum has four permanent galleries, plus a fifth for temporary exhibitions. Also boasts a lively programme of talks, workshops and activities ranging from martial arts classes to academic lectures, plus an excellent range of fun activities for kids. Like all self-respecting museums, it has a gift shop, but this one is really worth looking through, with some gorgeous pottery, textiles and jewellery, as well as the usual cards and books. Regular temporary exhibitions (this summer’s big ones, from 1 May to 23 Aug are a retrospective of the Museum’s particular treasures, and one titled ‘Fish of Plenty: Auspicious Nature in Chinese Art’), plus lots of educational/family events over the school holidays – phone or see website for details.

NATURE IN ART MUSEUM
Wallsworth Hall, Glos GL2 9PA, two miles N of Gloucester on A38. Zone D. Open Tue-Sun & BHMs 10am-5pm, admission £4.50 adult/£4 over-60s & ages 8-16/£13 family/under-8s free. Ffi: 01452 731422, www.nature-in-art.org.uk • A museum with a difference – a whole load of artworks gathered from different eras and different parts of the world, but all on the theme of animals/nature. There are some pretty famous names here, too, including Picasso, Dali, Scott, Combes, Shepherd and Audubon. It also has a big programme of art courses and school holiday events. Lots of regularly changing exhibitions and artists-in-residence.

NO.1 ROYAL CRESCENT
1 Royal Crescent, Bath BA1 2LR. Zone A. Open Tue-Sun 10.30am-5pm to end of Oct, shorter hours in winter, admission £5 adult/£4 senior, student/£2.50 ages 5-16/£12 family. Ffi: 01225 428126, www.bath-preservation-trust.org.uk • The Royal Crescent, designed by John Wood the Younger in the 1760s, is now reckoned to be one of the finest examples of 18th-century urban architecture, and No.1, which doubles up as the HQ of the Bath Preservation Trust, has been restored to the sort of grandeur it would have boasted when it was built. The Duke of York (as in son of George III, as in ‘Oh the Grand Old…’) lived here for a while, you know.

NORTH SOMERSET MUSEUM
Burlington St, Weston-super-Mare BS23 1PR. Zone B. Open Mon-Sat 10am-4.30pm, admission £4.10 adult/£3.10 senior/accompanied children free. Ffi: 01934 621028, www.n-somerset.gov.uk/museum • Quite a neat little place, this, with everything from dolls and old pottery through to displays on the history of North Somerset/Weston from prehistoric times to the present. Includes a mock-up of a Victorian dentist’s surgery, a typical Weston house from 1900, and lots and lots of stuff about seaside holidays down the ages.

OAKHAM TREASURES
Portbury Lane, Portbury, Bristol BS20 7SP. Zone B. Open Tues-Sat 10am-5pm (last admission 3.30pm), closed Sun, Mon & Bank Holidays, admission £6.50 adult/£5.50 senior/£5 age 6-16/£15 family (2 adults + 3 children). Ffi: 01275 375236 www.oakhamtreasures.co.uk • A couple of massive farm barns which have been converted to house all the stuff collected down the years by farmer Keith Sherrell. He started out being interested in tractors, and you can see his tractor collection. Then he branched out into other farm machinery; I mean, there’s even a huge collection of sheep-shearing gizmos (less interesting than it sounds). Now all this is great is you like farm machinery, but what’s going to pull most people in is the stupendously vast quantity of old everyday household stuff. Nothing we say can prepare you for the massive assault on your eyeballs that you get from all the advertising signs and all the groceries, sweets, cakes, chocolate, tinned food, cleaning products, booze, fags, children’s toys… All displayed in old shop cabinets or on mahogany counters. Much of the packaging still contains its original contents, and nobody can explain why, for instance, a 50-year-old fruitcake in a cellophane wrapper still looks as good as it did on the day it was made. Visit with as many generations of the family as possible to have a mass-reminisce about Rinso and Woodbines and Fry’s Chocolate Cream and Babycham and Bile Beans and…

THE RED LODGE
Park Row, Bristol BS1 5LJ. Zone A. Open Sat-Wed 10am-5pm (hours may change from Oct), admission free. Ffi: 0117 921 1360, www.bristol.gov.uk/museums • Fascinating place, right in the middle of the city. It started out as a house in Elizabethan times but was used for all sorts of purposes since. Most notably, it was turned into a reform school for bad girls by social reformer Mary Carpenter. One of the rooms is dedicated to her work, though the real stars are the Great Oak Room (with lavish oak panelling, plastered ceiling and ornate fireplace, all of them dating back to the late 16th/early 17th century) and the Elizabethan knot garden outside. If you live/work in central Bristol, you really ought to drop in sometime.

ROMAN BATHS & PUMP ROOM
Entrance via Pump Room, Stall St, Bath. Zone A. Open daily 9am-5pm (until 9pm in July & Aug), shorter opening hours in winter, admission £11 adult (£11.50 in July & Aug) /£9.50 concs/£7.20 child/£32 family. Combined ticket also giving admission to Fashion Museum £14.50 adult/£12.50 concs/£8.70 child/£40 family (2 adults + up to 4 children). Admission free for B&NES Council area residents with Discovery Card. Ffi: 01225 477785, www.romanbaths.co.uk • This is the one place in Bath nobody should miss, and the place does a superb job of explaining what it’s all about. The baths are the whole reason Bath is here in the first place, and this is among the best-preserved Roman sites in Europe. The hot springs that bubbled up from the ground were sacred to the locals long before the Roman invasion, but it was the Romans who seriously developed Bath as a trading and religious/healing centre and, as archaeological research is starting to reveal, a resort for the idle rich. With the aid of your audio-guide, you get taken through the remains and a selection of extraordinarily vivid finds (such as the votive offerings from people calling curses down on their enemies), and out into the open air and the magnificent Great Bath. It’s one of the few historic sites you come out of feeling as though you really do know more than when you went in. It boasts a dead-good gift shop, too. If you can stand the crowds, it’s especially nice to visit on one of the evenings in July or August when it stays open late and the baths are all lit up by torchlight, just as they would’ve been nearly 2,000 years ago. Woo! You can also visit the Pump Rooms, built in the 1790s, to imbibe a medicinal glass of your actual Bath water should you so wish. It tastes bloody awful, mind.

ROYAL WEST OF ENGLAND ACADEMY
Queens Rd, Clifton, Bristol BS8 1PX. Zone A. Open Mon-Sat 10am-5.30pm, Sun 2-5pm, admission free to New Gallery & Milner Gallery, £4 adult/£2.50 concs/free for children to main upstairs gallery. Ffi: 0117 973 5129, www.rwa.org.uk • The West Country’s leading ‘establishment’ art gallery, housed in a fabulous listed building and home to one of only five Royal Academies of Art in the UK, with a very distinguished 150-year history. There are two galleries – the newer one downstairs and the main one upstairs, which houses exhibitions that change every six weeks or so, but which is closed when it’s not exhibiting. Work on show usually tends to be very accessible – phone or check the website for details of current exhibitions, or read all about it in the Art pages of Venue magazine.

SCIENCE MUSEUM SWINDON
Wroughton, nr Swindon, off A4361 Swindon-Devizes Rd. Zone D. 2009 open days and admission charges not confirmed as we went to press. Ffi: 01793 846200, www.nmsi.ac.uk (click on ‘Science Museum Swindon’) • Here, in a series of massive hangars at a vast old WW2 airfield, is the storage facility for the National Collections of the Science Museum. And everything here is big – a whole range of things of scientific and technological interest, from the immense Lockheed Constellation airliner to printing presses the size of houses, agricultural machinery, computers, cars, buses, motorbikes, fire engines and more. It’s not usually open to the public, but opens for special one-off and themed events over the summer, including (probably) most weekends during the school holidays, although the programme hadn’t been confirmed as we went to press. Admission is generally (but not always) free, but even if they do charge admission this place is well worth a look. Phone or check the website for what’s on offer. (If you’re using the website, be very careful not to stray onto the pages of the Science Museum proper in London, or you’ll get confused.)

SOMERSET RURAL LIFE MUSEUM
Abbey Farm, Chilkwell St, Glastonbury, Somerset BA6 8DB. Zone C. Open Tue-Fri & BHMs 10am-5pm, Sat & Sun 2-6pm from 1 Apr-2 Nov, shorter hours in winter, admission free. Ffi: 01458 831197, www.somerset.gov.uk/museums • Run by Somerset County Council and with a remit to educate the local youth (in particular) about a whole world that’s still within living memory, but which will soon be completely forgotten. Housed in a medieval barn that once belonged to Glastonbury Abbey, this place shows what life was like on the Somerset Levels in the 19th and early 20th centuries, much of it through displays on the life of 19th-century farm labourer John Hodges and his family. As well as displays on farming, there’s also info on peat cutting, withy growing (willow sticks for baskets and artist’s charcoal), and cheese and cider making. Outside, there’s an orchard with beehives and rare breeds of sheep and poultry. It has a very busy schedule of events through the year, particularly demonstrations of traditional crafts from the Levels, so if you’re planning to visit, phone ahead or see website to see what’s on. Or just visit Glastonbury anyhow and make it part of the itinerary.

STEAM: MUSEUM OF THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY
Kemble Drive, Great Western Way, Swindon SN2 2TA. Zone D. Open daily 10am-5pm, admission £6.20 adult/£4.10 senior, student, ages 5-16/£16.50 family (2 adults + 2 children)/£19.60 family (2 adults + 3 children). Ffi: 01793 466646, www.swindon.gov.uk/steam • See Trains, Boats & Planes section.

THE TANK MUSEUM
Bovington, Dorset BH20 6JG. Zone D. Open 10am-5pm daily, admission £11 adult/£9 concs/£7 age 5-16/£29 family/under-5s free. Ffi: 01929 405096, www.tankmuseum.co.uk • Yeah, it’s a long way from Bristol/Bath, but, but… Tanks! I mean, like, wow! Tanks! This is the best collection of armoured vehicles in the UK, if not the world. Almost 300 tanks, self-propelled guns and other combat vehicles from 26 different countries in a large facility next to a working army camp. Includes impressive WW1 collection (some of which you can actually get into) and loads from WW2, including Shermans, Churchills, Bren Carriers, Panzer IVs, Panthers, a T-34 and some other Russians. The star of the show, however, is the WW2 German Tiger, the last working Tiger in the world, and a big terrifying lump of unyielding heavy metal which makes all of its Allied rivals look weedy and inadequate by comparison. Lots of post-war specimens, too, including several taken during the first Gulf War. If you time your visit for the right day, you will also be able to witness various vehicles in action.

THORNBURY MUSEUM
Chapel Street, Thornbury BS35 2BJ. Zone B. Open 1am-4pm Tues-Fri & 10am-4pm Sat, admission free (donations welcome). Ffi: 01454 857774, www.thornburymuseum.org.uk • Small community museum run by enthusiastic volunteers who can tell you everything there is to know about the long history of this ancient town. Exhibits include part of a Roman coin hoard found by a local bloke digging a garden pond a few years back as well as lots of other Roman artefacts. Also acts as a centre for local amateur historical researchers.

VICTORIA ART GALLERY
Bridge St, Bath BA2 4AT. Zone A. Open Tue-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 1.30-5pm, admission free but donations welcome. Ffi: 01225 477233, www.victoriagal.org.uk • Bath & North East Somerset’s biggest gallery has a very impressive collection of British and European paintings, from the 15th century to the present day, including works by Turner, Gainsborough and Sickert. A better range of stuff than you’ll see in the municipal galleries of some much bigger towns, and since it’s free, what’s stopping you? Also runs regular children’s and family activities, especially during school holidays. Big temporary exhibitions, too. We’re guessing the most popular will be this summer’s show of depictions of Bath in old railway posters.

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