Why you should take your child or grandchild to see the SSGB - by Sue Purkiss

This morning I did a shift volunteering on the SS Great Britain, Brunel's historic ship, which is moored in Bristol's floating harbour. I hadn't been there since before Christmas, and so as I walked round, it seemed very fresh to me, and it struck me as it has many times before what a wonderful achievement it is. I know there are many people, even locally, who haven't visited it, so I thought it might be interesting to walk round again, this time taking note of features that I know appeal particularly to children.

There are a lot of pictures, so do bear with! (But there are still masses more things to see, smell and hear, than I can show here...)

Right, let's go.

Part of the hull, with the sign to the Being Brunel museum, opened just a few years ago. More of this later.

There are all sorts of interesting details all over the place. I hadn't even noticed this one before, in a corner of the dock - it shows the preparations in case of fire.

In the Dockyard Museum, there's a room called Flash, Bang, Wallop, where visitors can try on Victorian clothes, and then have their picture taken against a background showing arrival in Melbourne. (The ship spent the greater part of its career taking passengers between England and Australia.)

Here, children - or adults - can try their hand at raising the ship's propellor. (It was raised when the ship was under sail.)

Now we're on board. The ship carried animals which would eventually feed the passengers - well, the first-class ones anyway.

The ship's wheel. You can turn it and dream about all the places you'd like to go to. (Or you can just admire the view of the harbour.

Bunks in steerage. The voyage lasted for two months, and as you can see, there wasn't much privacy for poorer passengers. There are all sorts of details, based on passengers'diaries and letters, to personalise the bunks: tools for panning gold, sketches done on board ship, simple toys. And there are sounds - a new-born baby crying, two women discussing the events of the night before.

Here's the cook in his kitchen. There are all sorts of other things in the kitchen too - rats, for instance...

Some things are a bit gory. Here's the ship's surgeon, treating a sailor who's had a nasty accident. You can smell the medecines, and there's a jar of leeches in the background. But also, there are some beautiful sea shells on the bunk, because this particular surgeon collected them.

This is a not-very-good picture of the engine room. (The engine is usually working.) But this view always interests me, because it shows the stokers, whose job must have been hellish. My father was a stoker, albeit in a power station, not on a steam ship.

This picture doesn't look very interesting. But that door in the foreground is the part of the ship which almost every child who visits will tell you is their absolute favourite: yes, this is the Talking Toilet! Say no more...

Now we're in Being Brunel - which is actually a good place to start, because it tells you about Brunel and his family, and sets the Great Britain context, as just one of his many achievements. It makes him real. There are talking portraits, treasures to be found by opening drawers, replicas of rooms where he lived and worked - and this reconstruction of a carriage (broad gauge, of course). The carriage moves, and children (and grown-ups) are challenged to try to draw a perfect circle on an ipad while the carriage is in motion - because Brunel once said, after a particularly wobbly journey, that one day, travellers would be able to drink a cup of coffee and write in a notebook with perfect ease. People at the time would have scoffed - but Brunel's mantra was always "Let me try!"

A very large Isambard. (Child in front for scale.)

And to finish, what else but the shop? There is an excellent selection of books - including one by me, which you may be able to spot on the third and fourth shelves down. (It's called Emily's Surprising Voyage, just in case you were wondering.)