britain is full of quirkly little museums, many of which are shown on the excellent nothing to see here coordinated/produced by the lovely anne from i like
one such place is the museum of berkshire aviation. i’m not sure i’d recommend it though as it’s quite reader-intensive in the old school museum style of ‘look but don’t touch’. making it quite exhausting/boring depending on your age and attention span !
it promised some excitement for children but didn’t actually provide it (i wasn’t sure whether the sign above was something vintage or an actual modern bit of fun)
when i bothered to read all the words surrounding the cases it revealed a fascinating history of the woodley aerodrome as it rose to international renoun for its aircraft manufacturer, and airfield tomfoolery (dougal bader famously lost his legs after betting a friend he could do some low level acrobatics – the friend won the bet)
the highlight was getting to go in to a proper plane (the one shown at the above), although you aren’t allowed to sit on the seats.
worth a trip, even though you think they could do a lot more with the place to make it more accessible. it feels like a time-warp treasure trove. i may pop back on my own sometime and spend a few hours reading the signage and trying to work out the chronological order of the exhibits !