I thought I would start a thread about independent places to visit that are great.
We went to chiltern open air museum last weekend. It's half price as the houses aren't open but you can see into them from the outside and can see most things. There's sheep, goats and cows. Lots of knowledge shared by the staff/volunteers who are happy to chat about what they are doing. We took two 11 year olds and spent a couple of hours there, including a picnic. There's a hut serving hot and cold drinks and alcohol. We'll worth a visit, it's in Buckinghamshire.