A few month’s ago I wrote a post about my best buys for annual passes in Norfolk. One of the passes I said was that absolute BEST value for money is the Norfolk Museums pass which for a family of four cost us just £85 and gave us access to 11 museums in the county. It really is such wonderful value, especially when you realise that you only have to go to three museums once each and the pass has paid for itself!

We regularly go to Gressenhall and the Castle Museum, both are pretty awesome and we’ve been to a couple of the others too. We love the little museum in Cromer, it’s so sweet and SO worth the visit. When we went they had laid on activities for the kids and crafts which was lovely and which my two enjoyed immensely! All the museums tend to do something fun during holiday times and it really does help if you know the cost is already covered. I thik even if I was just a holiday maker here for two week’s I’d buy one – so worth it!

One that we hadn’t been to until yesterday was the Time and Tide Museum in Great Yarmouth which is an old smokehouse and of course, because it’s the holidays they had lots going on. They will be doing fun things on Wednesdays throughout the summer and yesterday we enjoyed some beach crafts, FREE face painting and a BRILLIANT Punch and Judy show where Florence was called up to the front – she loved it, she’s her Mummy’s daughter clearly!

The museum is so interesting and full of facts about the area and of course of what the building once was along side curios and, at the moment, a fantastic Titanic exhibition loaned from a private collector. The children were fascinated and came away with lots of knowledge which is brilliant – they’re learning but having fun at the same time! Love that!

I think my favourite part of the museum was going into the old smoke house which still smells of smoked haddock from the times when the Scots girls would follow the fish down the coast until they were fished to no more… My Great Grandmother, Florence and Jimmy’s Great, Great Grandmother, was one of these girls. She gave my Grandma up when she was a baby and I’ve always wanted to know more about her so I loved reading about the lifestyle these girls led. The fact that the beams in the room are impregnated with the  aroma forever more makes it all that more atmospheric…

It’s a fabulous little museum, a wonderful place to go and see and how lucky are we that it’s all included in our annual pass and we can go whenever we like! There are two other museums in Great Yarmouth as part of the Norfolk Museums pass so next time we will really make a day of it and visit them all! Maybe, just maybe, if this weather ever gets any better, we will couple it with a trip to the beach! Bit of a top tip is that there is a SUPER cheap car park opposite the museum which costs just £1 for 2 hourse, £2 for 2-4 hours and only £4 after that! So a whole day’s parking within walking distance of the beach and all three museums sounds pretty good to me!

As a Norfolk gal I can’t say Great Yarmouth is my favourite place in the world, I’m far more a Cromer sort of person but… I was really surprised yesteray and visited a part of the centre I’d never seen before. It was really lovely!

Here’s some of my fave pictures from yesterday!

Follow