Norton Priory

Cost: Adults £13.95, children 4 to 16 free
Ages: 4 to 11
Where: Runcorn, Cheshire
Weather: Works in the rain
Booking: Just turn up

Europe's most excavated monastic site, with a 12th century undercroft, a puzzlingly giant statue of St Christopher and a 2.5 acre Georgian walled garden that opens in the summer season, plus woodland walks with summer houses and sculptures.

Adults pay £13.95 on the day (£15.35 with Gift Aid), and up to three children aged 4 to 16 go free with each full-price adult; advance tickets online are cheaper. It is shut on Wednesdays and opens on Thursdays only in the school holidays. It is ten minutes away, rarely busy and quietly excellent, the local history day that feels like a find.

What it costs: On-the-day prices: adult £13.95, or £15.35 with Gift Aid. Children 4 to 16 free, up to three with each full-price adult; additional children £7 (£7.70). Under 4s and essential companions free. Advance tickets bought online up to midnight the day before are cheaper.

What’s on at Norton Priory

Grumpy Pumpkins Halloween Trail at Norton Priory

Norton Priory, Runcorn

24, 25, 26, 27, 29 and 30 October and 1 November

Pick up a trail sheet and hunt down the ten Grumpy Pumpkins round the museum grounds and woodland, each guarding an ingredient the Witch of the Wood needs for her spell. It is £1 a child on top of adult admission. The same week has spooky stories for little ones on Thursday 29 October and Jack-o'-lantern light walks in the woods on the evenings of the 26th and 27th (adults £10, children £7.50).

£1 a child, adults pay standard admissionBook online

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