I love fusty little Museums!

[DaddyGhoul]

Fantastic. DS and I were just at the Midland Air Museum in Coventry (I'm actually on the sick but he Dr. has signed me off for ages and I'm up to 'light duties' I guess) and it was quite good. Loads of planes and cool cockpits you can get in and ds seemed to really like it.

I like places like that. It was wonderfully dead and it was just me, ds and a couple and their 18mth old.

It was full of old boys who can't hear and the place smelled all fusty and unused. I love places like that. It was full of old WW2 stuff and the old boys were dieing to tell you stories.

Conversations with these guys always makes me laugh:

Me: "it's nice you've opened up the plane for ds to play with the cockpit controls... he seems to be having a good time"

Old geezer: "yup..yup.. but you can't do this kind of thing on army bases, oh no. they open those places up and they can't let little ones play with the controls because I've got two words for you... EJECTOR SEAT! PRESS THAT AND IT'LL CRUSH THE KIDS VERTABRAE!.. yup yup"

Me: "he likes planes but he's mostly into cars. i'll have to pick him up a little plane in the giftshop"

Old geezer: "yup..yup.. CARS! CARS! THEY USED TO MAKE CARS HERE IN 143 PLANTS.. NOW IT'S ONLY ONE.. SEE! SEE! (pushing us toward the window to show us the Peurgeot plant across the road)... WHAT'S THE WORLD COMING TOO Eh! EH!??"

great fun .

wow! i've only just returned to this thread. i'll have to have a good read through it later today. i can't believe it made the front page! .. that's a first.

Pitt Rivers, Oxford gets my vote too! Just fantastic, there is a little desk when you go in and you can borrow a torch and open up all the cabinets to see what you can find! Just fabulous, and staffed so well with people who know all about the stuff in the cases - there is a witch in a silver bottle, all sorts of ingredients for spells, some great shrunken heads, as well as guns, bows and arrows, boats, costumes and head dresses....just endless.

Totally fantastic!

for anyone in and around Manchester, the Manchester Bus Museum is a wonderful fusty little museum!! Rubbish at doing links, but they've got a website - they're only open 3 days a week I think but it's the most fantastic place. Tons of old buses the kids can clamber one - huge open spaces they can run around in, and so far when we've been we've virtually been the only ones there! Bizarre little tea room that we've haven't dared venture in, and a fab litle shop selling lots of model buses.

I also love Horniman museum in SE London, but I agree, its become what I all "Poncy"!!

Just found this thread - not far from the Horniman is the Age Exchange at Blackheath - full of the sort of stuff granny used to use. Also Zennor in Cornwall - everything and the kitchen sink with handwritten labels. For the aircraft enthusiasts there's a museum in a martello tower somewhere on the Essex coast - can'r quite remember the place.

Poppy - the Hornimann is a national institution in our family, poncy or not! I can't quite believe we have made it this far into the winter and this afternoons visit will be our first!

Has no-one been to the Fakenham Museum of Gas? I haven't yet felt quite deparate enough on a wet weekend in Norfolk but the time will come!

There used to be a most peculiar and macabre museum in Arundel, which had tableux of weddings, fairgorunds etc all made up of dead stuffed kittens. I couldn't find it when we went to the castel this year - is it still there?

And don't anybody be popping up with your 'cat-hater' abuse, either!

Oh, I disagree, the Horniman's fab, and I think updating it has been only a good thing. I don't think it should stay a fusty collection of Mr Horniman's Things From His Travels - it's great having somewhere to take the kids for activities, and indeed Inferiorette#1 is going to be doing drumming classes there soon too.

Can I second Hausofhorrors suggestion of the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. The 'hodge Podge' school of Musium, par excellence.

I'v even got over the horrid memories of leactures there on Synthetic Chemistry!