A visit to... the Yorkshire Museum of Farming

Ever on the quest to find places to explore both for photography purposes, and to keep The Childs entertained, during the most recent bank holiday we headed for the Yorkshire Museum of Farming, at Murton Park, just East of the city of York.

We'd heard about it before but not really had chance to go- it is a relatively smaller museum, but in the process of investing heavily in the facilities.  We'd also say it is somewhat eccentric, in a charming way, with a bit of a mix of exhibits.

Starting with the farming machinery, naturally anything metal, complicated, and slightly rusty catches my (Ben's) eye, so a few close-ups on a hilariously over-complicated Ford-made self-propelled tractor/plough/shearing-machine/siege engine (ok so a bit facetious there, but not too wide of the mark given how it looked)... apparently which spent more time being serviced than it did IN service.

The museum is spread over a large site, with nature trails...

...animal paddocks...

...and a Roman Fort, which was also doubling up as a Wild West fort, with a group of historical re-enactors.

There is also a Viking village, but we managed to not photograph it (for a complicated reason myself and Youngest Child got caught in a wild-west train robbery, and by the time we'd extricated ourselves from the gunfight we had to hurry to catch up with the rest of the group).

There is also a very nice dovecote, again for reasons of rushing round I quite managed to fail to get a shot of the outside, but it is very tastefully restored.

There are several, recently-constructed/developed buildings with exhibits inside, and these are very creatively laid out and nicely interesting, with helpful information boards and eye-catching lighting.

A somewhat quick blog post which we hope conveys something of the atmosphere of the place... we're going back for another visit later in the year.  It is small, but very reasonably priced (they let the Youngest Child in for free, which was nice), the staff and vols and re-enactors were extremely welcoming and friendly, and the Childs were kept entertained tearing around the place, and there was a lot to keep we adults interested too.

Also part of the site is the Derwent Valley Light Railway, and that will be featuring in a separate blog post shortly...