Norwich Castle Museum 2022!
Yep, here I am talking about Norfolk Museums again because frankly, they’re so good they deserve another spot on the blog! Norfolk Museums are ten across the county and with a Norfolk Museum’s Pass (which we have) you can visit unlimited times to all of them for 12 months at the wonderfully inclusive price of £101.70 for a family consisting of two adults and as many children as you have. Yes, you heard that right, as many children as you have and all at that same price! That’s just under £8.50 a month for a whole family to be entertained every single weekend of the year and beyond. There are smaller museums (our fave of the little ones is the old fisherman’s cottage in Cromer) and then larger ones like Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse and Time and Tide in Great Yarmouth which are our favourites. Gressenhall’s play area is worth the annual price alone and their working farm is tremendous alongside a riverside walk, the workhouse museum and more! But in Norwich we have the Castle and that’s also one of our absolute faves in the fleet!
With The Museum of Norwich (The Bridewell to old schoolers like me) and Strangers’ Hall, the Castle makes up one of three in the city centre of Norwich all which come under the Norfolk Museum’s pass. So… Like I said, an annual is well worth the buck but if you fancy a one off visit then why should the castle lure you in through its doors?
Well, right now, despite undergoing extensive refurbishment to the Castle Keep meaning a lot of the collections and permanent exhibitions are altered, Norwich Castle Museum is still a tremendous day out for the children. Thoughtful touches such as buckets with drawers of toys to fill them with have been set out with an invitation to play for little ones, and to choose items from the drawers to take with them round the museum and aid them in their journey around it. That’s a really fun element and in term time they also have classes and workshops for children running which are inexpensive and educational for pre-schoolers especially.
We visited this week with the Cookie Crumbles gang, see what we got up to here:
During the holidays things also step up a gear and over the summer, during their “World We Live In” exhibition they have asked children to join in with “We Built This City” and add to the recycled city that has been built by children all holidays long. Asked what would be best added to the perfect city, the build has seen football pitches, extra trees, power plants and, with our visit, a Brandy Melville (of course the perfect city for Florence has a Brandy) added to its landscape and this was so popular with us yesterday it was hard to drag ourselves away!
Norwich Castle Museum has been a stalwart on the Norwich educational scene for decades. It might have a bit of a rep with people of my era who’ve not been for decades as I have to say, when we were kids and it was quite literally the only school trip we ever went on, it wasn’t the most exciting of museums back then, however, this is not the case any more. Even with major works going on this place is lots of fun and with tremendous thought put into even the very small bits!
The castle IS open, despite the cranes and building sounds. The cafe is too, albeit with a mini menu right now but there’s rocky road and pastries on it and that’s good enough in my book! Firm faves like the Boudica exhibit are still a go and there’s plenty to keep everyone busy! We had a grand day out and are grateful for the invitation to come and play although as I mentioned, we are very definitely customers and have been for years! Who wouldn’t want a pass that excellent in value!
If you’d like to try before you buy though then it’s worth noting that on the 10th of September this year they are holding a FREE open day as part of their Heritage Open Days. And always, always, always they allow people in for the last hour of the day at a bargainous £2.50 so there’s plenty of ways to inexpensively see how good the castle is and then you will need to buy your pass and see the others because they’re great too! It’s coming up to Apple Day at Gressenhall, one of their special event days which costs more to access than a normal day ticket price but for annual members is all included! See, how good are Norfolk Museums?!
We were invited to visit the castle as guests of the museum but we are paid up annual members so we can visit whenever we like, and we do!
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