Do you visit museums and art galleries? Do you have a favourite?

[stephec]

Another one I've remembered, The BBMF at RAF Conningsby.

There's quite often a few vets around who are happy to chat, and the guides are brilliant.

 

[annedonnelly]

If anyone cares about the museums in Lancashire you might be interested in this survey. There is a proposal to close five of them at the end of March. They're not local to me but my brother works in one that's not (yet) scheduled for closure.

 

[Illaveago]

Bovington Tank Museum in Dorset, that is if you are in to tanks, they have special events like Tank Fest where they drive the tanks around in an outside arena and have mock battles. Once you have finished there you can continue down to Lulworth Cove or Durdle Dor for a paddle.
Coventry Museum of Transport is very interesting and has two Landspeed Record Holders Thrust 2 and SSC.
Coventry Air Museum has the Sir Frank Whittle Collection, they also let you climb into the cockpit of a Vulcan and Argosy with a guide.
Cosford Museum has a great number of aircraft on display, but I find that the Cold War building not fit for purpose, you can't see the planes as it is too cramped.

 

[vernon]

If anyone cares about the museums in Lancashire you might be interested in this survey. There is a proposal to close five of them at the end of March. They're not local to me but my brother works in one that's not (yet) scheduled for closure.

Lancashire is not alone in facing cuts. My home town is agog

I took a Nigerian distributor and his teenage son to the Manchester Museum, which is a scaled-down version of London's Natural History museum. Hanging from the ceiling in the main hall is a whale skeleton. Mike, my distributor (imagine Shrek with his ears moved down and brown instead of green) rocked back on his heels and exclaimed: "Aaaah.... that is a BIG crocodile!"

Once we had finished and were heading for a curry in Rusholme I asked him what he had though of it all. His reply?

"It's all fake! Everybody knows the world was created in six days about four thousand years ago and that on the seventh day the Lord rested."

"So what about all those fossils, Mike?"

"They are put there by God to test our faith in the bible!"

What can you say?

This....?

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Anyone else ever go to the Laurel and Hardy museum in Cumbria, it used to be in a tiny place absolutely crammed with L&H stuff?

Another good one is the Cartoon Museum in Little Russell St, London. They put on a great Ronald Searle exhibition a few years back.

 

[Profpointy]

I took a Nigerian distributor and his teenage son to the Manchester Museum, which is a scaled-down version of London's Natural History museum. Hanging from the ceiling in the main hall is a whale skeleton. Mike, my distributor (imagine Shrek with his ears moved down and brown instead of green) rocked back on his heels and exclaimed: "Aaaah.... that is a BIG crocodile!"

Once we had finished and were heading for a curry in Rusholme I asked him what he had though of it all. His reply?

"It's all fake! Everybody knows the world was created in six days about four thousand years ago and that on the seventh day the Lord rested."

"So what about all those fossils, Mike?"

"They are put there by God to test our faith in the bible!"

What can you say?

Ah i see -God himself faked the dinosaurs

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Anyone else ever go to the Laurel and Hardy museum in Cumbria, it used to be in a tiny place absolutely crammed with L&H stuff?

Stan Laurel is from there, Ulverston, I believe

 

[fossyant]

We visit MOSI the most, and I always go and find my bike's brother !

Love wandering about the sewers and also the engine shed is fascinating.

Did the main London Museums a few years back, huge....

 

[Hover Fly]

Anyone else ever go to the Laurel and Hardy museum in Cumbria, it used to be in a tiny place absolutely crammed with L&H stuff?

Another good one is the Cartoon Museum in Little Russell St, London. They put on a great Ronald Searle exhibition a few years back.

I used to live just up the street from the original, when it was in a side alley. When we moved out we left a load of junk behind including an old cast iron kettle and a stoneware hot-water bottle. A few months later the L & H museum was on TV, complete with aforementioned kettle and bottle.

 

[TVC]

The National Space Museum. I'm amazed by the number of people who don't know it's there. Fantastic museum with some proper cool stuff. Also they actually design and build satellites on site. When I worked as a Project Manager the best mechanical design engineer on my team left our company to go and work there building space hardware. He is a great bloke, but I hate him in only the way someone who is intensely jealous can.

 

[slowmotion]

Kettle's Yard, Cambridge
http://www.kettlesyard.co.uk/

 

[John the Monkey]

The RAF Museum at Cosford - went with my son when he was tiny on one of their open cockpit days, and were shown around the Vulcan by someone who'd crewed on them during the Falklands war, and around the Lincoln (a late variant of the Lancaster) by a chap who'd served right at the end of the war on Lancasters. Amazing day.

The Museum of Science and Industry (Manchester).

The Whitworth Art Gallery & Manchester Art Gallery

The Cobbaton Combat Collection (Devon)

 

[mjr]

Which reminds me: True's Yard Fisherfolk Museum in North End http://www.truesyard.co.uk/

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Kennedy Space Centre in Florida; real rockets, space shuttle, space station crawl-through, moon buggy, loads of flight/landing simulators, shuttle ride, launch site tour, imax cinema, stuff, stuff and more stuff. Very cool place.

 

[Hover Fly]

...I love the Maritime Museum in Greenwich (I have a book on permanent loan to the museum)...

You ain't been to the National Maritime Museum 'til they've shown you "The Beaver". A sight so horrific they don't put it on public display.