The Oxfordshire Museum

The Oxfordshire Museum occupies a graceful townhouse on Park Street in Woodstock, and entry is free. The permanent galleries cover the natural and social history of Oxfordshire across eleven rooms, from prehistoric fossils and Roman remains through to crafts, costumes and rural life. The range gives families of different ages different things to pick out and linger over, and there is always something running for children in the school holidays.

For younger visitors the dinosaur element is the main draw. Outside in the garden, a life-size model of a megalosaur stands among planting designed to echo a Jurassic landscape, and inside the dedicated gallery visitors can look at 168 million-year-old footprints from a quarry in Oxfordshire, real prehistoric tracks preserved in stone. Children tend to find the genuine fossils more arresting than any model. Family activity trails run during school holidays with no advance booking needed.

The museum is a short walk from Blenheim Palace and pairs well with a visit to the palace grounds or as a free, indoor alternative when the weather turns. There is an on-site cafe with a garden terrace. Being closed on Mondays is worth knowing before you set off.

Good for: dinosaurs, history, rainy-day, outdoors, sensory. Ages: 0–2, 3–4, 5–7, 8–11, 12+.