Weald and Downland Open Air Museum, Chichester

If your children havent yet visited as a school trip go! An amazing day out stepping back in history and seeing how small the houses were! It is expensive so I think to get your money worth its worth while going on a day when they have an event like the heavy horses etc One of our favourites in going into the old fashioned kitchen where you can sample what they're tasting or going for a cart ride behind the horses. Its worth taking the whole day to visit here and if its been raining bring your wellies!!

We went to the Festival of Steam held at the Weald and Downland Open Air museum last weekend and we had a fantastic day. The museum is all outside so good weather is a must really! We had good weather so decided to give it a go and we were pleased we did! The museum holds many exhibits of different houses set up to show you the history of how people used to live. You can also see farm equipment and farm animals along the way. To be honest, I expected it to be a bit boring but it really wasn't! The museum was holding the festival of steam which showed off many steam engines and model engines, boats, bikes and trucks. Our child loved looking at all the models and seeing all the steam!! It was a good show and quite fascinating to see! There were good eating facilities at the festival - stalls with hogs roasts and we got a fantastic fresh pizza made. There was a tea room available though - which served teas, coffees, cakes, jacket potatoes, sandwiches - that sort of thing. I did notice they did a child's picnic box which contained a roll, hula hoops, fruit, shortbread and a drink for about £3.50 and there were plenty of places to picnic. Also in the museum was a big lake where they were sailing model boats and there was free train rides on a model train which our child loved. Plenty of things to see and do! The only thing I didn't see was a baby change but you could easily just change your baby on the grass as there were plenty of grassy areas!