AIBU to ask if you've been to the Keswick Pencil Museum?

[BlooferLady]

Oh! Oh! I am HOWLING with laughter!

They have the most fantastic website - it's priceless, I can't see through my tears -

From 'Plan Your Visit' - "Explore the museum before you come and discover all the great things to see and do. You can journey through the history of pencils and pencil making!"

It's only a tenner for a family ticket but for £15 you can visit the bungalow museum as many times as you like during the year!

And the cafe is called SKETCHERS!!!!!

And there's a genuinely spine-chilling wax doll stuck helplessly in a cavern underground - WTF is he doing, mining for those erasers you stick on the end???

Reassuringly, they can take large numbers, and there's a Drawing Zone where you can get hands-on with the pencils

Oh Lord I'm laughing so hard I've nearly thrown up my prawns - surely some MNetter has been there? Is it as AWESOME as it looks?!

cars to the stars was better than expected

jamie yeah I always thought the Museum of Childhood was a bit of a wind up! All those toys and you cant touch them

Although its been refurbished so maybe they are a bit more interactive now?

Oh! Now who knew there were two Lakelands? What an instructive thread

Is anyone else secretly tempted to sign up for one of their drawing classes?

onlion - no it wasn't

I try to tempt people to go to Southport for the National Lawnmower museum. It has a brown sign and everything.

Never been mind you. Neither have I been to the Museum of Lace. Or mentioned it to my mum because she would probably want to go...

I've been several times. It was a family joke really (and still is!) that on a rainy day you go to the pencil museum. It truly is the most boring place on earth

I live literally just up the Rd from the Museum of Childhood - I love it and go loads, but I don't have children, and - physically at least - am not one myself, so I can't even remember whether you can touch the toys or not. I like looking at creepy dolls in glass cases, so it does the trick for me...

Several times eh VFVF? I trust you had the foresight to buy an annual pass!

I have been. It had been raining in Keswich for nearly a week and we were running out of money and inspiration! It was great with young kids, i have to say!

We went last year mainly because I wanted to see how big the world's largest pencil actually is. We were thoroughly underwhelmed by the whole affair and tbh it wouldn't take much to break the record.

mrsdevere - a tiny bit. They have iron filings, a little sensory bit which is quite nice. A puppet show box thingy, a small sand pit. A tiny Lego bit, A bit you can play draughts. But you cannot get at any of the Fisher Price stuff

My parents had more money that sense

DS and I love the National Slate Museum in Llanberris. Diggers, vidoes of trains, real train round the lake, cafe, playground, living history, free to get in. Love it. We visit Llanberris several times a year and always go.

I don't see the point....

(rolls on floor)

Punk!! Only consider my pelvic floor woman!

I even took DH so he could join in with the family joke. He couldnt wait to leave loved it!

Lakeland kitchen stuff HQ is in Windermere (with a very nice painted church for those who like that sort of thing also in the town).

By the Cathedral at Ripon there is a museum which I think is a museum of the courthouse. You can walk round half a dozen more or less empty rooms for 50p. I would probably enjoy the pencil museum as I am quite sad like that but even I couldn't get enthusiastic about this. For Terry Pratchett fans - it made the Dwarf Bread Museum look like Alton Towers.

Ah yes, Windermere, not Keswick ......

There was (is?) a Museum of Childhood in Edinburgh's Royal Mile that I went to many times when I was a child (which was a very long time ago).
I adored it, loads of Victorian toys and the most wonderful Dolls House I'd ever seen.
IIRC you were allowed to touch the windy up type things.

I live right near the William Morris museum. Every single school child in the borough has to visit.

You can imagine their delight when its their turn to gaze in wonder at floral wallpaper samples and rusticly hewn sideboards

I know he is wonderful but your average east end school kid is somewhat less than impressed.

The DCs went there this term. Eyes rolled

keswick is not that far from me

dd1 is reaaly quite cross that they have to walk for 15 mins to go and see Mobile Bible World

she came home with a permission slip and I hadn't sent it back yet but she said to her teacher that wont be going as she doesn't like religion and the teacher said its non optional

so the permuission slip is just to say whether she is allowed to walk out of school grounds

she is gutted

and no I'm NOT going to pretend that I'm not happy with her walking with the school out of grounds for 15 mins so she doesn't have to go

From pencils, to lead in a pencil. A friend went to this museum in Iceland. Very interesting by all accounts....

Ah, yes Windemere, I stand corrected.
It also has a million fleece/boot/outdoor shops, so hard to tell the difference. I've never seen so many shops where I could see nothing I wanted to buy.
Not dissing the place btw, but I do live in the Highlands so why we holidayed in the Lakes is beyond me. Similar scenery, similar weather but 1000 times more tourists (and outdoor shops)