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Norfolk

Museum sights in Norfolk

  1. A

    Origins

    Located at the Forum, family-focussed Origins is a wonderful interactive museum that surrounds you with film, images and noise in its exploration of 2000 years of regional history. There are numerous buttons to push and games to play; you can have a go at speaking the original Norfolk dialect (not easy), flooding the Norfolk Fens or simply sit back for story time with weird and wonderful tales of the area's mythology.

    reviewed

  2. B

    Bridewell Museum

    The 14th-century Bridewell, or 'prison for women, beggars and tramps', housed in a former merchant's house, has reopened after a grand facelift in July 2012. The museum focuses on key points in the city's history, such as its prominence as England's second city in the Middle Ages and its 19th-century industrial heritage. The displays include some wonderfully eccentric objects, such as the snake-proof boot, and the interactive displays in the Pharmacy are proving a hit with younger visitors.

    reviewed

  3. C

    Old Gaol House

    Explore the old cells and hear grisly tales of smugglers, witches and highwaymen in the town's old jail. Also here is the Regalia Room, which houses the town civic treasures, including the 650-year-old King John Cup, exquisitely decorated with scenes of hunting and hawking.

    reviewed

  4. D

    Royal Norfolk Regimental Museum

    A claustrophobic tunnel from Norwich castle emerges into a reconstructed WWI trench at the Royal Norfolk Regimental Museum, which details the history of the local regiment since 1830. It has another less dramatic entrance from the road.

    reviewed

  5. E

    Town House Museum

    Petite museum dealing with the history of the town from the Middle Ages up to the 1950s. Next door is the magnificent flint-and-brick town hall, which dates from 1421.

    reviewed

  6. F

    Lynn Museum

    The town's main museum features displays on maritime life in Lynn and West Norfolk history; highlights include a large hoard of Iceni gold coins and the Seahenge gallery, which showcases a 4000-year-old timber circle that has miraculously survived intact, and explores the lives of the Bronze Age people who created it.

    reviewed

  7. G

    Green Quay

    This fantastic interactive museum introduces you to the wildlife, flora and fauna of the area through a mix of displays, videos and freshwater tank holding some denizens of the Wash (the estuary), with sensitive exhibitions on the effects of climate change and how to preserve the fragile local ecosystems.

    reviewed

  8. H

    True's Yard

    Housed in two restored fishermen's cottages – the only remainder of the bustling, fiercely independent fishing community that once lived in this part of the city – this museum looks at the traditions and difficult lives of the fishermen and their families, who were packed into such cottages like sardines.

    reviewed

  9. Toad Hole Cottage

    This tiny cottage was home to a marshman and his family and is restored in period style, showing how the family lived and the tools they used to work the marshes around them. Nearby is a beautiful thatched Edwardian mansion and a picturesque nature trail.

    reviewed

  10. Museum of the Broads

    Learn about the traditional Broads' boats, the wherries, the marshmen who gathered reeds and sedge for thatching and litter, and the history and lifestyles of the area at this modest museum. There are displays on everything from early settle­ments to peat extraction and modern conservation. Visitors can also take a trip on a steam launch (adult/child £3.50/2.50) hourly from 11am to 3pm.

    The museum is about 5 miles north of Potter Heigham off the A149.

    reviewed

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  12. Green Quay Museum

    This museum charts life in the Wash (the estuary) with exhibitions on the wildlife, flora and fauna of the area and the effects of climate change.

    reviewed