Christine was working this weekend, and so, to keep our toddler entertained, we went to Quarry Bank, near Manchester Airport.
It’s a National Trust property, and is home to Quarry Bank Mill, a large, red-brick mill. Whilst it is still signposted as ‘Quarry Bank Mill’, the National Trust are spending a lot of money on other parts of the site as well. The mill is still the main draw – it’s big, and still has a lot of existing machinery inside. You enter at the top, and start with wooden looms and spinning wheels, before heading down to the mechanised machinery that were used in later years.
Quarry Bank Mill is also home to a very, very big water wheel. It’s still operational, but has been replaced by steam engines and electric power. Enthusiastic volunteers demonstrated the machines and explained how they work, making it feel more interactive than some industrial museums that I’ve previously visited (Leeds, Calderdale and Bradford).
A special exhibition at the top of the mill is based on Sir Tony Robinson’s book The Worst Children’s Jobs in History(sponsored link). Kids can practice shovelling (fake) horse poo, picking vegetables, sweeping chimneys and looking after babies (dolls). Our toddler loved this, and threw a bit of a tantrum when I had to extract the doll from them to move on. It’s on until the 10th September.
Gardens
Last year, the gardens at Quarry Bank were renovated and this was completed earlier this year. They’re home to some nice decorative planting, a kitchen garden and a newly-renovated glass house. You can even buy some of the produce for a donation. A new visitor centre will open later this year, improving access to the gardens.
Next year will see Quarry Bank House opened to the public for the first time, along with some mill workers houses.
We didn’t go to the Apprentice House, which is a separate guided tour. I didn’t think our toddler would enjoy it, but maybe we can go again when they’re older.
Getting to Quarry Bank
Quarry Bank is near the village of Styal and is just to the south of Manchester Airport, so it’s relatively easy to get to. It took me about an hour to drive there from Sowerby Bridge, in light traffic.
As with all National Trust properties, members get in free. I’m a member, and under 5s get in free, so it didn’t cost anything for either of us to visit, but Christine isn’t. Had she come with us, it would’ve cost her £20. That being said, there’s a lot to see and do and it’s a full day out; I got there at 10:30 and left about 3pm, and didn’t do the Apprentice House. National Trust members will find it especially good value for money.
Not all of London’s museums are in the centre of the city. The East London suburb of Bethnal Green is home to the V&A Museum of Childhood, home to a wide range of toys from several decades.
Now that our 18-month-old is an easily-bored toddler, we felt that we needed to go to a museum that would keep them interested. Thankfully, a museum filled with toys fits the bill, especially during school holidays. It’s technically part of the Victoria and Albert Museum, but doesn’t focus on art and sculpture like its larger Kensington sister museum.
A lot of the toys are enclosed in big glass cabinets, but there are some interactive exhibits. The most popular of which was simply a big pile of differently sized cardboard boxes, perpetuating the oxymoron that children are sometimes more interested in the box than the toy inside. Upstairs there was a sandpit, and we arrived just in time for an interactive story-telling session.
Our 18-month-old also enjoyed the sensory exhibit, with bubble tubes and multi-coloured lights. Christine and I appreciated the range of toys, which included the very old and the quite new. At the back is a large display of dolls houses, lit up as if in a large night-time scene.
We didn’t have the time to see everything as we had to go to meet a friend in the afternoon, so we only had a fleeting glance at the upstairs exhibits (sandpit aside). There’s quite a good café in the central atrium of the museum, which seemed quite busy even before lunchtime.
Entry to the museum is free, and it’s just up the road from Bethnal Green tube station on the Central Line. The museum itself is fully accessible but the nearby tube station doesn’t have step free access. We brought Lizzie in her sling as we knew we’d struggle with a pushchair.
When I was a kid, I used to love going to Eureka, the national children’s museum in Halifax. I was eight years old when it opened in 1992, and so I was in the right age group to visit. I remember going with primary school at least once, and with my parents on other occasions.
Eureka turns 25 this year, and I took Lizzie along a few weeks ago. She’s been three times now – once with me, and twice with her mum. I took her because Christine was working that weekend, and we had a Tesco Clubcard Days Out voucher that was about to expire.
There are still quite a few bits of the museum there that I remember. I remember pedalling on a fixed bike, and seeing a skeleton appear doing the same motions. That’s still there, although the rest of the gallery around it is new. The SoundSpace gallery is new; Lizzie found this really stimulating with lots of sound and light. We also spent a little bit of time in Living and Working Together, and All About Me, but having arrived there after lunch on a Saturday there was only limited time.
When Eureka opened, it was almost unique in the level of interactivity offered. So many museums at the time locked their exhibits behind glass cases, and there would only be the occasional button to press. Eureka was different – you could play with just about everything. It was all about learning through play – a concept that it now applies to its nursery, which is consistently rated ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted. Nowadays, many more museums have exhibits which are accessible to kids, but Eureka was pioneering in this respect.
Eureka entry prices
Although it’s a national museum, Eureka doesn’t receive any central government funding, hence the need to charge an entrance fee. Our local MP, Holly Lynch, has been campaigning to change this. Making it free would be fantastic for Halifax, as it could bring in many more visitors to the town. Work is already ongoing to better link the town centre and the Piece Hall with Eureka and the railway station.
As it stands, for a family of two adults and two children aged 3 or over, a day out at Eureka is almost £52. Whilst the tickets are then valid for unlimited repeat visits within the subsequent 12 months, it’s still a big initial outlay. And that doesn’t include food at the café, parking or travel. It would be great if the museum could become more accessible to those on lower incomes.
Eureka is still a fantastic museum for kids. Quite a lot has changed in 25 years and I’m pleased to see how it’s developed. But it was also nice to go back and see things that I remembered when I was younger. And now that we live nearby, we’ll be getting the most out of our annual passes.
Yesterday I took our one-year-old to the National Coal Mining Museum for England, which is near Wakefield. Christine was working again and I’d heard that it was a good place to take kids of all ages. Plus, it had the advantage of it being free to enter.
The mining museum opened in the late 1980s, and became a national museum in 1995. You can read more about the history of the site on Wikipedia. However, this was my first ever visit. My parents never took me as a child, and I hadn’t been as an adult because we’ve not had a car until recently. It’s not very well-served by public transport – typically three buses an hour from Wakefield, 2 from Huddersfield and 1 from Dewsbury. But there is ample car parking, and it’s on the main A642 road.
The main attraction is the opportunity to go down the old Caphouse Colliery coal mine. Alas, you need to be at least five years old to do so. So, we’ll have to come back to do that sometime after 2020 when our one-year-old is old enough. Fortunately, there’s a playroom for the under-5s with a ball pit and soft play area. Collectively, this kept our one-year-old entertained for the best part of an hour.
Two coal mines
The mining museum actually spans two pits – Caphouse, and Hope Pit, which is at the other end of the site. A narrow-gauge railway runs between the two, and on weekends you can get on board a small battery-powered train. Alternatively, it’s a quarter of a mile walk.
You can’t go down Hope Pit, but most of the surface buildings are open to have a look inside, and there are some information panels and interactive exhibits. However, there were no staff on hand to talk about the exhibits – and this is something I noticed generally across the day. It’s a big museum, but I feel it could be brought more to life with more staff.
Living and working
The entrance to the mining museum includes a visitor centre, and galleries focussing on the human side of the mining industry. How people lived, and the impact of industrial action, with a particular focus on the Miners Strike of the 1980s. I was born during the strike, so was too young to remember it. The museum tries to take quite a neutral line on the dispute; though it covers the hardship that mining families faced, it explains the other side as well. As a national museum, I expect that it receives central government funding, so this perhaps isn’t so surprising. But it’s a different attitude to, say, the People’s History Museum in Manchester.
One thing I noticed about the other visitors was that I was one of the youngest adults there, despite being in my thirties. There were lots of kids there (including a birthday party group) but many were with their grandparents, whom I’m guessing may have worked down the mines in their heyday, or lived in mining communities. Coincidentally, Friday marked the first time that Britain’s energy needs were met without coal for 24 hours.
Stables
Outside, you can visit the stables where two pit ponies and a horse now live. Although horses were used in commercial mining right into the 1990s (something I learned on my visit), none of these three horses has ever worked down a mine. At one time, these would have pulled a Paddy Train up the side of the mining museum site. But said paddy train was lying rusting in a far corner of the site, along with its plaque commemorating its opening in 1990. Indeed, several parts of the site are part-derelict. Unfortunately, being a free museum means that it’s reliant on donations and public funding.
This aside, I think we both had a good day out. Discounting lunch in the café, which serves reasonable but expensive food, we spent about 3 hours there. Had we been able to go underground, I expect this would have been longer. I’m sure we’ll be back when Lizzie is older.
In a couple of months time, Christine, our one-year-old and I are off down to that there London for three nights. Typically, we go to London once or twice a year.
Travelling down
Our last visit was in October, and we travelled down by car for the first time. This was because we went via Oxford, but also because of the logistics of managing a 10-month old baby on a train for three hours each way was daunting. Especially when you add in all of the extra paraphernalia that you need to haul around with a small baby. Last time, we had to take plenty of food, changes of clothes, nappies etc.
This time, our toddler will be approaching 18 months old, and so we’re going to attempt the train. We’ll do without a pushchair, as our toddler should still be small enough to carry in a sling, and can walk short distances now. And, apart from a few snacks, our toddler doesn’t need their own food, as they’re happy eating from regular menus now.
It’ll also be cheaper. Fuel and parking cost us around £60 last time, plus the pressure of driving. Christine hasn’t passed her test yet and I can’t supervise her, so I have to do all of the driving. By contrast, two standard class adult returns with a Two Together Railcard booked last month cost us just £41. And, we’ve accumulated enough Nectar points to get two £20 Virgin Trains East Coast vouchers, so we actually only paid £1. That’s cheaper than the Megabus.
Staying over
Booking well in advance also ensured a cheap hotel stay. When booking accommodation, my usual tactic is to check the major budget hotel chains one by one, and then an aggregator like Expedia or Lastminute.com (which are often not the cheapest). Typically, we end up staying in a hotel in the IHG group, as I’m an IHG Rewards member, but they didn’t come out cheapest this time.
As usual, we’re not staying in central London. London’s public transport is really good, and the cost of travelling a bit further out is usually much less than the price of a more central hotel room. This time, we’re staying near Kew, in south-west London.
London attractions
The hotel is handy for the London Museum of Water & Steam, which I’ve not heard of before but it looks interesting. It’s in an old pumping station, and now tells the history of London’s water supply. This will be the second London pumping station that we’ve visited, after going to Crossness in 2015. It looks like it’ll be good for kids – especially if it’s a nice day where Lizzie can play outside.
The Musical Museum is also nearby and we may visit, depending on time.
Further away is the Museum of London Docklands. We popped in for about an hour on our last visit, but were only able to see the gallery on the top floor, about slavery and the history of the area. So we’d like the see the rest of the museum, but also the special exhibition on the archaeology of Crossrail that runs until November.
The Hunterian Museum has been on our to-do list for some time. Sadly, it closes next month for a three year refurbishment, so it’ll be shut when we visit.
Seeing friends
We try to make time to see friends when we’re in London, and so, in addition to the above, we’ll plan to meet up if we can. There’s a lot to fit in to a three night stay but we’ll do our best.
Last month, Christine and I had a day out in Oxford. I have family who moved down to nearby Bicester from Yorkshire some years ago, and so we visited as a stopping-off point on the way to our week’s holiday in London.
My relatives kindly offered to look after our baby for an afternoon, giving Christine and I some time to ourselves, and the opportunity to visit the city. I’d last been there in the 1990s, coupled with a visit to Legoland Windsor, but Christine had never been before. She arranged to meet a friend for lunch, and then we hit the museums in the afternoon.
Oxford Museum of Natural History
Oxford’s Museum of Natural History isn’t as big as the one in London, but it is also free to get in. The museum is part of the University of Oxford, and is home to various stuffed animals and preserved skeletons. One of its more famous exhibits is the Oxford Dodo, an incomplete dodo skeleton. It’s accompanied by a model showing what we think a dodo may have looked like.
The building is also interesting. Many of the supporting columns are made with different minerals (with labels), making the building a museum piece in itself.
A number of the exhibits can be touched, which makes a change from seeing endless glass cases. There are also a number of activities for kids during school holidays.
Pitt Rivers Museum
Tagged onto the back of the Museum of Natural History is the Pitt Rivers Museum. We only had time to look around the ground floor but there was plenty to see. It houses a series of collections of objects, many of which were brought in from overseas and are sorted by theme. There are collections of pottery, death masks, shrunken heads (which were the inspiration for those used on the Knight Bus in the Harry Potter films), charms, weapons, musical instruments and lots more besides.
I’m sure you could visit multiple times and still see something new each time. This is despite the museum fitting into one, admittedly large, room.
As we were only in Oxford for one afternoon, we didn’t get chance to see much of the rest of the city centre. But we’ll probably go back again before long, especially for a return visit to G&D’s ice cream café.
A couple of weeks ago, Christine and I ended up with a Friday off work and no plans. So, on a whim, we decided to go to Liverpool.
In the past, we would have caught the train. It takes a couple of hours from Sowerby Bridge, with a change in Manchester. But we decided to drive this time, which proved to be quicker and (probably) cheaper. We decided to stay the night, and we could bring all of our seven-month-old’s paraphernalia in the car as well. We managed to get a room in the Holiday Inn Express in the Albert Dock, which was great. It’s located in one of the old warehouses, above what used to be the studio for This Morning on ITV. The rooms still have the brick barrel-vaulting and ironwork intact, bringing some character to an otherwise bog-standard budget hotel.
We last came to Liverpool in 2010. Back then, we spent a couple of days in the city, before catching the ferry to the Isle of Man. This was before the Museum of Liverpool had opened, so now that it is open and established, we popped in. The gallery about the Liverpool Overhead Railway most interested me, as you can imagine, but the rest of the museum was worth looking around too. It’s also home to several of the Superlambananas that were created for Liverpool’s European Capital of Culture event in 2008. There’s plenty about the history of the city, although some of the exhibits about Liverpool’s suburbs will be more of interest to locals than those visiting.
Liverpool is one of my favourite places to visit. The area around the Albert Dock is fantastic, as is the Liverpool One shopping centre – it’s a great example of a retail development that blends into the city, rather than dominating it. I’m sure we’ll be back again in a few years time.
Running a stately home is a lot of work – you only have to watch shows like Downton Abbey to see why. (note: I have never watched Downton Abbey.) Organisations like The National Trust spend millions every year to keep their properties going. Not all houses are lucky enough to have someone maintain them and some have fallen into disrepair or been demolished.
With this in mind, artist Kate Lycett has painted a series of pieces called the Lost Houses of the South Pennines, which has gone on display in Halifax’s Bankfield Museum. All of the paintings are of houses and stately homes in Yorkshire which are no longer standing, such as Manor Heath in Halifax (now Manor Heath Park) or Horton Hall near Bradford.
What makes Kate’s paintings stand out is her attention to detail. All of the paintings show the houses as if they were still in their heydays – lights on, and with an almost ethereal glow, giving them life again. Gold leaf has been woven in to good effect.
Alongside each piece is a description of the house – who built it, what it was used for, and its ultimate fate. Photographs are also provided, as are Kate’s scrapbooks that she used during her research. Ironically for an exhibition at a Calderdale Council venue, many of those houses were demolished by its predecessor organisations. Dry rot seemed to be a major problem in several properties but I think money (or the lack thereof) has been the major factor in most of the houses’ demise.
We’ve visited twice – Christine and I were lucky to be invited to the opening night by a mutual friend of the artist, but we also popped in with my parents at the weekend. It looks like it’s been pleasingly popular.
All of the paintings are for sale by sealed auction bid, but you can also purchase limited numbered edition prints that are signed by the artist. These include the gold leaf that the originals have. The exhibition runs until early April, and is free to visit.
On the Saturday, we went to visit the Cutty Sark, a ship in a dry dock in Greenwich, east London. The ship was built in the late 19th century, initially to deliver tea from Asia to Britain. In 1954, the ship was moved to a dry dock in Greenwich, and became a tourist attraction. I first visited it with my parents in the 1990s.
In 2006, the Cutty Sark was closed to visitors to allow it to be restored; forty years of standing on its keel meant that the ship began to sag. Despite a major fire, the ship re-opened as a museum in 2012, now raised on a series of supports. The dry dock has been glassed in, to make it an all-weather attraction, and to mimic the effect of the ship on water. This also means that visitors can walk under the ship for the first time, and there’s now a café at the bottom of the dry dock.
The tour starts inside the ship’s hold, with various displays telling the history of the ship and the cargo it carried. Some of these are interactive, and I particularly enjoyed the bench seats which simulate the swaying of the boat on rough sees. You then climb up to the top deck, which has been extensively restored, and you can pop into the captain’s quarters.
At £13.50 per head for adults, it is a little pricey for somewhere that most people will spend a couple of hours at, but discounts are available. We used a 2-for-1 voucher from Days Out Guide as we’d travelled to London by train. Cutty Sark DLR station is just around the corner so it’s easy to reach by public transport.
It was nice to see the Cutty Sark again, having been as a child. The restoration has been done very well, and the glass enclosure is a nice touch.
This is the first of at least two posts about what Christine and I got up to last week whilst we were in Dublin – the focus of this one being about the attractions we visited, in no particular order.
Guinness Storehouse
Allegedly the most-visited attraction in Ireland, the Guinness Storehouse tells the history of Guinness, which is probably the most well-known brand of stout in the world. Although Guinness is still brewed in Dublin, on a huge site just outside the city centre, the Storehouse is across the road and not part of the main brewery site. Consequently everything inside is simulated or are static models, rather than actual, in-use brewing equipment like you would see on a tour of a microbrewery.
It’s one of Dublin’s more expensive attractions, however we spent a few hours here so it was somewhat worth it. Except that neither me or Christine particularly like Guinness – Christine hates beer altogether, and although I like stout and porter from time to time, I’ve never enjoyed Guinness in the past. And, sadly, our visit was to be the same – despite being shown how to pour my own pint, I still didn’t like it. The restaurants inside are very good though, with an above average food selection and many menu items using Guinness as an ingredient. For beer-haters, there is some interesting displays about Guinness’ advertising and how beer is made.
The Old Jameson Distillery
If Guinness is Ireland’s best known beer, then Jameson is its best known whiskey. Like the Guinness Storehouse, the Old Jameson Distillery is no longer an active distillery. Production was moved to the southern Irish city of Cork in the 1970s, although here some of the displays were active. It’s a guided tour, taking about an hour, with eight volunteers being picked for a whiskey test at the end. You should definitely volunteer if asked, as you get to try shots of Jameson’s whiskey, Jack Daniels’ bourbon, and a blended Scotch whiskey, to compare the three styles. Christine was chosen – I didn’t volunteer because I don’t like neat whiskey, but enjoyed a Jameson and ginger beer drink at the end, and a really nice Irish coffee in the bar. Again, a pricier attraction but we enjoyed this more than Guinness.
Dublin Zoo
Christine and I love visiting zoos so we spent most of last Monday at Dublin Zoo, as many other attractions in the city are closed on Mondays. It’s quite a big zoo, and whilst it has fewer animals than some others it does have some big enclosures. It was quite quiet when we went but it was a weekday and not especially nice weather, so at other times it will probably be busier. We were also wisely advised to take a packed lunch, as the food offerings there are not great. It’s home to two species of tiger (both very endangered), red pandas (my favourite animal), otters, lions, various apes, penguins and many others. The entry price is in line with other zoos over here in Britain.
Natural History Museum
After you’ve visited the zoo, have a look at the ‘dead zoo’ – yes, it’s really known as that. Though significantly smaller than its London namesake, and less interactive, the Natural History Museum has an extensive collection of stuffed animals. The ground floor is set aside for species native to or resident in Ireland, with everything else upstairs. The two balcony floors are currently out of bounds due to a lack of fire exits but most of the exhibits are viewable. Some of the specimens are very old, and were stuffed at a time when people were less familiar with exotic animals, so there are some slightly dodgy examples of taxidermy on show. Entry is free, although it is shut on Sunday mornings and all day Monday. Set aside a little over an hour for a visit.
Temple Bar
The Temple Bar is a district of Dublin which is home to many pubs and restaurants – the above pub gets its name from the area, rather than the other way around. It’s nice for a stroll through but livens up on an evening.
General Post Office
I’ve already briefly mentioned this one, but it’s worth a look. As well as being the main post office for the city, there is a small museum inside, which tells the history of Ireland’s postal service. In particular, there is quite a bit about its role in the Easter Rising of 1916, which set in motion various events over the next decade which ultimately led to Ireland’s independence from the United Kingdom. It’s only €2 to get in, and kept us occupied for up to an hour. You can also post letters and postcards into the oldest postbox in the country, and any mail collected from it will get a unique cancellation stamp.
Dublin Castle
We decided not to do the guided tour of Dublin Castle, which costs money, but there were plenty of bits to walk around for free. Follow the signs to the tearooms, and you will go past several boards with information about the history of the castle, and its wider role in Irish history. You can also cross a bridge into Dubh Linn Gardens, at the back of the castle, which are nice to walk around.
Kilmainham Gaol
Another historical attraction worth visiting is Kilmainham Gaol. Though it’s been many years since prisoners were interned there, it forms an important part of the history of the nation. The population exploded during a crime wave brought on by the potato famine – as the potato crop failed for several years running, those without food had to steal to survive, and many were caught. But in the early twentieth century many of those involved in campaigning for Irish independence, and those that opposed the Irish Free State in the Irish Civil War, were imprisoned and executed here. There’s both a small museum, and a guided tour of the main jail.
The jail isn’t in the centre of Dublin and is a good 20 minute walk from the Guinness Storehouse, itself away from the city centre. If you’re not up for a long walk, you may wish to catch the bus out here. It’s worth the long trip though.
