East Lancashire Railway
Real steam trains between Bury, Ramsbottom and Rawtenstall, with themed family days all summer - Peppa Pig, fairytale specials, the lot. The day rover means you can hop off for lunch and catch the next one back.
The Fusilier Museum
Bury, Greater Manchester
The diaries are the thing. Thousands of objects fill two galleries on Moss Street, weapons and uniforms and medals and paintings and enamels and photographs and silverware, but it is the soldiers' own diaries that land with older children, once they work out that a real person sat and wrote them. The museum covers the Lancashire Fusiliers and the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, and there is a shooting simulator for anyone who has run out of patience with display cases, plus regular children's activities and two temporary exhibition areas that change through the year.
Adults £4.95, concessions £3.95, children £2.95, family £9.95, and the museum states that whatever you buy entitles you to visit as many times as you like for the following twelve months. Opening is Monday to Friday 10am to 4.30pm and Saturday 10am to 3pm, last admission an hour before close, nothing on bank holidays. Allow an hour, or ninety minutes with a keen eight year old. There is a cafe. Both the free Bury Art Museum and the East Lancashire Railway are a two minute walk away.
Know before you go
- The £9.95 family ticket is an annual pass. Live anywhere near Bury and that changes the maths entirely: go twice and it is half price, go four times and it is loose change.
- Closed on bank holidays and Sundays, and last admission is an hour before closing, which on a Saturday means being through the door by 2pm. Bury Art Museum is free and directly opposite, and the East Lancashire Railway is five minutes away at Bolton Street, so one car park charge covers three stops.
Looking for more museums & science near Bury?
Also in Bury
Burrs Country Park
Riverside country park on the Irwell with a playground, old mill remains and its own East Lancashire Railway station, so a heritage steam train can be part of the day rather than the whole of it.
Bury Transport Museum
A restored 1848 railway goods warehouse filled with buses, trams and hands-on exhibits, two minutes from the East Lancashire Railway's Bolton Street station. Weekend opening, and the natural rainy-day half of a steam train day.
Imagination Bay Adventure Play
Beach-themed play in a converted mill: indoor sand, role play, a craft corner and a dance floor rather than the usual three-storey frame. Timed two-hour sessions and no walk-ins.
Little Luxe Soft Play
A small independent built around inclusive play, with a multi-sensory calming room off the main floor. The one to try if a big noisy centre has gone badly before.
Jungle Mayhem
Radcliffe's jungle-themed centre: a four-lane slide, a ball pool with suction tubes, a sports zone and a disco room. Adults get in for nothing, which is rarer than it should be.