Free Things to do in the North West of England

I have that kind of lethargy that you get when you've lived in the same area for a long period of time - 'there's nothing to do', 'I've seen it all' and 'it's all rubbish'. So, it's always a nice surprise when I stumble across something new - especially when that new thing is absolutely FREE to enjoy! This is what happened when I discovered the National Football Museum, located at Preston North End's Deepdale Stadium, in Preston.

So, what is it?

Well, as the name suggests, it is a football museum which contains a collection of all things football, from its invention, right up to the present day.

It's the jewel of the football memorabilia world's crown - described as the 'proud custodian of the official FIFA collection' - and this is shown nowhere better than its heavyweight hierarchy, which has Sir Bobby Charlton as the president and Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir Tom Finney and Sir Trevor Brooking as vice-presidents.

How does it work?

Well, appropriately enough, the museum is split into two halves! The first half gives a history of the game through a series of displays. This area is all about the statistics that have shaped the game and you will find lists of the leagues through the years, notable events in the footballing world and various souvenirs, including the original FA Cup.

The second half is a much more interactive area and includes all kinds of games and activities that will delight young and old alike. There is a also a section about the museums hosts - Preston North End - and there is a chance to have a look at the stadium from the viewing platform.

Is it any good?

The answer to this question is undoubtedly a yes! Although I do follow my local team (the - ahem - mighty Blackburn Rovers!), I am not the biggest fan of football, but I don't think you need to be to enjoy this museum - as strange as that sounds.

In the first half, the die-hard fans will no doubt enjoy proving their worth by knowing the main facts already, but the exhibits are presented in a way that doesn't alienate the non-football fans. The information is presented in a time-line and is accompanied by key social events to bring the facts to life. You'll be able to compare what was happening in the football world, during events in time - the wars, changing political leaders and the Spice Girls' first Number One!

The exhibits cover the origins of the sport, women's football, advertising in the game, working conditions and, of course, football superstars.

There are some fun exhibits, too, that will appeal to everyone. My favourites were the Spitting Image dummies of Gazza and Gary Linekar.

Another good thing about the 'First Half' is that children will be kept entertained with the various different ways of presenting the exhibits - there are visual displays as well as little pods that you stand in and an audio presentation can be heard. There are also activities that include dressing up in older kits and so on.

The second half, however is the real draw I would imagine as it is completely interactive and there are some great things to do.

There are a couple of table football tables, but this is table football with a difference - there are massive TV screens behind the tables and your games are recorded and then played back on them!

There's also a great little exhibit that we loved - Gary Linekar's commentary box. You basically go into a recording booth and commentate on a game of football; it's then played back with your picture on the screen. It's great fun for budding football journalists everywhere.

You can also have a look at the comprehensive rule book which is available to look at on a big screen with lots of pointers and descriptions to help digest the information.

So would I recommend it?

Of course I would! it really is great fun. The initial exhibit is well presented and very engaging. The interactive area will provide hours of entertainment for young and old alike.

Even if you don't like football, I guarantee you will still find something here that captures your imagination or that interests you and the kids (even the very big ones!) will love it! Best of all though - it won't cost you a thing to find out how good it is!

Other Information

There is free parking available outside the museum.

It's open 10am until 5pm on Tuesdays to Saturdays and from 11am until 5pm on Sundays. It closes just before kick-off on match days - although you won't be able to park anywhere near the museum on those days. It's closed on Mondays (except for Bank Holidays).

There is a coffee shop and gift shop that sells every kind of football souvenir you can imagine!

Its fully accessible to wheelchair users.

They welcome big parties and school groups.

I'm always looking for quirky things to do on my days off, because I'm not one of these people who can just sit around and do nothing. Much of my research starts on t'internet, as we say Up North, and the other day I stumbled across the website for the Bolton Museum, Aquarium and Art Gallery (http://www.boltonmuseums.org.uk). Bolton isn't far from were I live so when I noticed that it's free to enter, we decided to pay a visit and I'm pleased to say that I'm glad I did.

The Bolton Museum is in the town centre on Le Mans Crescent (behind the town hall) and is conveniently located next to a multi-story car park and just opposite the bus station. The museum and aquarium are in the same building as the library, with the museum being above the library and the aquarium being below, in the basement. There is a lift to all floors, so all parts of the building are easily accessible by wheelchair users.

The museum itself is split into three separate sections which span out from the central gift shop. The gift shop is small and has the usual museum paraphernalia (fridge magnets, postcards, pencils and the like) as well as a selection of souvenirs matching the various temporary exhibits on display.

The first room you go in, if you work your way round in a logical order, is split level. The first level is a history of Bolton and the surrounding area, focussing mainly on Bolton's industrial past. There are a variety of displays showing what life was like for the local people in times gone by. Of particular interest were the original fire engine (a cart pulled by a horse and made out of wood of all things!) and the collection of pieces of meteorite that have been found in the area. The displays are all very well labelled and clear. I thought it was particularly nice that they had lots of input from the people who'd actually used the items on display.

This floor also features a temporary exhibition of the history of sport in the area entitled 'Sports and Games in Worktown'. This is an interesting exhibition full of emotive pictures and videos that show what the area was like in the 1930s. Wandering round it really did make me fill like I'd stepped back in time.

Upstairs on the second level, the displays are all about the natural world, featuring displays of stuffed animals, clothing and tools used in the various areas of the world. The star of the show is a life-size elephant head replica hanging from the ceiling, accompanied by an interesting little display about how they got it into the museum (not as easy as you'd think considering the size of it!). There is also a little section that was helped designed by local school children, that shows the effects that pollution has on the environment.

The next room as you leave the gift shop again (they really want you to visit the gift shop!) contains a temporary exhibition about the FA Cup (borrowed from the National Football Museum in Preston). If you're planning on visiting this exhibit (and you should) go before the end of May, when it leaves for pastures new. Again, this room is very well laid out and the displays are clear and concise and not too overpowering. There is information about the history of everything about the FA Cup, from its humble beginnings to the glorious competition that it now is. There is an interactive bit that will keep children entertained. In the centre of the room there is a table full of 'mystery items' all of which are explained in the surrounding displays. As 'big kids' we had great fun working out what the items represented from the clues given! Also in this room, there is a small section about Bolton Wanderers, which includes turnstiles and seats taken from the old stadium, as well as a scale model of the ground itself.

The final room on your tour around the gift shop, is currently devoted to a collection entitled 'Egyptomania' which, you guessed it, is about Egypt. Specifically the influence of Egyptian Art and Culture on other civilisations. It's a nice little exhibition that includes some great examples of Egyptian art and culture, the centre-piece of which is the four mummified bodies in the centre of the room. Interestingly, one of the bodies in the sarcophagus wasn't buried at the same time as the tomb it was in! There are also sections of various temples which give a great insight into the culture. As someone who has been to Cairo and Luxor and many of the famous wonders there, I was still impressed by the display here.

Finally, you head downstairs to the aquarium, although expect to be under-awed by the display! The aquarium consists of about 20 tanks, the first ten of which contain the kind of fish you expect to see in a fish shop. The second set of tanks are slightly more impressive, with huge piranhas and a giant eel type creature. I had a fun time engaging in a face-off with one of the piranhas that, I swear, was giving me dirty looks, but it got bored before I did - aha victory!!

Overall I would say that the museum is definitely worth a visit, not least because it's free, but more importantly, because it has a great display of exhibits. Granted, there is nothing there that is going to blow you away, but everything is really well displayed and it's a great place to wander round leisurely.

Children will enjoy it as there are various interactive areas for them to explore - probably the most fun one being in the permanent room, where there is a selection of old toys for them to play with. The museum is obviously designed with children in mind, as they will no doubt enjoy the huge elephant and the working engines in the industrial section as well as the more gory mummies in the Egypt section.

So, if you have a couple of hours to spare, head to the Bolton Museum and Aquarium - you're bound to learn something, it won't cost you anything and you'll have lots of fun in the process!

Introduction

I remember going to the Imperial War Museum in London when I was a child and having a great time, so when I discovered there was one here in the North, I decided to pay a visit.

The Imperial War Museum North is housed in an obscure, but interesting, looking building and is basically made up of two floors:

The ground floor is the entrance and includes the gift shop, a dining room (where you can eat your packed lunch, if you've brought one), a cloak room, learning studio and the elevator to the Air Shard (which is a 29 metre high viewing platform, from which you can see most of Manchester).

The second floor is where the exhibition rooms are. There are two; the Main Exhibition Space which contains the permanent display of war artefacts and the Special Exhibitions gallery which contains the temporary exhibitions. When I visited the temporary exhibition was a display of female war artists' work, which was well worth the visit alone.

The Main Exhibition Space is also where they present the award-winning Big Picture Show, which is a 360 degree audio-visual experience showing different aspects of the war in approximately 15 minute shows, every hour.

My Opinion

The museum is fantastic, in my opinion. It's really well laid out and easy to work your way around. There is an even balance of visual, emotional and informative display items that makes it suitable for the whole family.

The Museum is presented in a big open space, that is easy to wander round in a logical order, following the timeline that runs around the edge of the room covering 1914 to the present day in digestible periods - World War I, The inter-war period, World War II, After the war until 1990 and 1990 to the present day. This is particularly good because you generally think of the World Wars when you consider wars in general, but it gives a interesting and thought-provoking look at the wars of this generation, which are often over-looked (by me anyway).

There are some great 'large objects' which break up the educational bits nicely. The most impressive is the Harrier Jump-jet hanging in the entrance. Also on display are a Trabant estate car and a T34 Russian tank. You obviously can't climb on the objects, but you can get a good look at the insides of them and there are descriptions of them and quotes from people who've used them.

There are also a number of small rooms (called Silos) which each display a different aspect of war, such as Women and War (which has souvenirs that notable women from each war have collected) and Experience of War (which is laid out like a living room and contains games, newspapers and foods from the various wars).

The museum is very child-friendly, with plenty of opportunities for children to learn whilst having fun at the action stations. These include learning how to crack codes and dressing up in camouflage. Whilst we were there, there were many children wandering round with smiles on their faces as they explored the various exhibits and enjoyed the object handling sessions hosted by the museum staff.

By far and away the best bit of the museum though was the Big Picture display. Every hour, the main room goes dark and images and sounds of the war are displayed on the walls, giving you a very real experience of the war through the eyes of the people who experienced it first-hand. The presentation we watched was 'Children and War', which gave the accounts of children from all the countries that have been involved in wars throughout the last century. It was a very moving account and I found it very interesting to see how war affects the people involved.

Overall, I would definitely say that the museum is worth a visit and a donation. It is suitable for people of all ages and gives a thought-provoking and moving account of events that are happening around the world even now.

Other information

The museum is located on the riverside at The Quays in Salford and is easily accessible by road, car and train.

The museum itself is free to enter, although you do have to visit the entry desk to 'check in' where a member of staff politely enquires whether you'd 'like to help the museum to expand and improve by making a valuable donation of £3.95' (for which price you get an all-singing, all-dancing guide book!). We gave the guide book a miss, saying that we'd make our own donation. There are plenty of donation boxes around the museum and, to be honest, you don't need a guide book, as the museum is quite small and the exhibits well-labelled.

There is a great gift shop where you can buy from an extensive range of war literature, museum souvenirs and war-inspired items such as ration cook-books and foods.

The museum is open seven days a week from 10am until 6pm (March to September) and 10am until 5pm (November to February). Last admission is 30 minutes prior to closing.

Whilst it probably only takes a couple of hours to explore the museum, it's easy to make it part of a day out, as there is an outlet mall, theatre and plenty of restaurants close by, as well as Old Trafford (if you're that way inclined, which I'm definitely not!).