Hat Works Museum
The UK's only museum of hats and hatting, back open after a four-year refurbishment. The galleries are free and you can try hats on; the Victorian factory floor is a £7.50 guided tour. An hour well spent, not a full day.
Museums & science Stockport
Museums & science in Stockport
Hands-on museums and science centres. Several of the best ones are free.
4 in Stockport1 free4 indoor2 suit under-5s
Children get in free at every one of these, which makes Stockport an unusually cheap museum town. Staircase House is the pick for a wet afternoon, a hands-on walk through the oldest town house in the Market Place at £5.50 an adult with under-16s free, and the Air Raid Shelters under the town centre suit sevens and over who can cope with a dark tunnel. Hat Works is free to walk into and you can try the hats on, though the Victorian factory floor is a £7.50 guided tour, and the Anson Engine Museum out at Poynton is £8 an adult, £10 on event days, with under-13s free.
Museums & science in Stockport
Anson Engine Museum
Go on a steam day. The rest of the time this volunteer run collection of gas and oil engines, one of the largest in the country, sits still on the site of the old Anson Colliery in Poynton.
Staircase House
Stockport's oldest town house, done out as a hands-on walk from the 15th century to the 20th and named after a rare Jacobean cage newel staircase. An hour does it.
Stockport Air Raid Shelters
A labyrinth of tunnels carved under the town centre that sheltered thousands in the Blitz, explored with a self-guided audio tour. Atmospheric in the best way for 7-and-ups.
Museums & science elsewhere in the North West
World of Glass
Free, indoors and better than it sounds: interactive science aimed at younger children, glassblowing demos, a picnic area and a small playground outside.
World Museum, Liverpool
Five floors, free, and it covers three things small children reliably love: giant dinosaurs, an aquarium and a space gallery. The best wet-weather day within half an hour.
Catalyst Science Centre
Hands-on science galleries and a glass rooftop observatory over the Mersey. Small, cheap, indoors and close.
Science and Industry Museum
Working steam engines, the story of Cottonopolis, and hands-on galleries in the world's oldest surviving passenger railway station. Free, and the live demonstrations are the bit kids actually remember.
Manchester Museum
A T. rex skeleton cast, live frogs in the vivarium, Egyptian mummies and a genuinely good natural history floor. Free, university-run, and less overwhelming than the big London equivalents.
National Football Museum
Shirts, trophies and match footage across six floors, with penalty shootout and skills games that football-mad kids refuse to leave. If yours do not care about football, skip it - it is exactly what it says.
What’s on near you, every Friday
One email a week: what is on this weekend within a sensible drive, and the places worth booking before they go.