Somerset Rural Life Museum - Sue Purkiss

 I love museums, and I'm fascinated by the innovative and creative ways they find to tell their stories. I've been to several these holidays with grandchildren - I wrote here about the really rather luscious chocolate museum in Antwerp, and in July we went to the Bristol Aerospace Museum, which I'll write about next month.

But this post will be about the Somerset Rural Life Museum at Glastonbury, which we visited just the other day with our two youngest grandchildren (8 and 6). The main, stone-built building was once Abbey Farm, and in the grounds is the beautiful 14th century tithe barn, which used to belong to Glastonbury Abbey. So the setting is perfect for a museum focusing on rural life.

Laundry corner

Downstairs there is a gallery, with changing exhibitions. There is also a rebuilt outside toilet - a sort of family affair, with differently sized wooden seats. (Authentic, except that it's squeaky clean and it doesn't smell.) This has been an object of great fascination to all our grandchildren. (Note to museum designers: if you want to interest children, you can't go wrong with a toilet. See also the talking toilet at the SS Great Britain, and the loo-with-a-view - and a long drop - in the ruins of Goodrich Castle.)

Then you go into the farmhouse kitchen, where on the day we went a very friendly lady was sitting spinning. The table is set, and the more mature among us will be fascinated to see utensils exactly like the ones Mum - or Grandma - used to use. Then it's up the stairs to the (very pleasant) cafe, and the Working Village, where there are displays of all sorts of tools, implements and objects which were once in everyday use, but now seem like quaint echoes of another way of life. It's a good place to go for grandparents and grandchildren - there's a lot of reminiscing and hilarity.

From this level, you can go outside to the farmyard, where there's a horse, rather beautifully made from pieces of rusty metal, and a cow which you can actually milk. (Well, sort of.) There are also activities for children here. Then it's into the glorious Tithe Barn, which at the moment has interesting exhibitions on. I particularly liked a film that interpreted the artist's walk from his home to Glastonbury - not in a linear, obvious sort of way: I admired the creativity and ingenuity on display. 

The sculpture exhibition is by Andre Wallace, and the film is by Tim Martin. But who knows who designed and built this beautiful building?

And then out into the orchard, with its piggery and various sheds, and a nice friendly cow that you can actually sit on.

There's still more to see on the top floor, incuding a representation of an old schoolroom (pointing to an inkwell: "What's that?") and a gorgeous doll's house.

It's a fascinating and relaxing place to spend a few hours. There weren't many people there when we went, even though it was the school holidays. Everyone was very friendly, and a ticket lasts for a year and allows entry to all the Somerset museums, which is, I think, extremely good value.