Our trip to Exeter museum

Ever since E watched a Peppa Pig television episode about going to the museum she quite often talks about museums, despite she has never been to one. I was aware that there was a museum in Exeter but had no idea what it was like. Before I mentioned it to E I did a little research on their website and we also exchanged a few messages on twitter.

On a previous occasion whilst shopping we walked past the museum and E enquired what the building was so I told her, she really wanted to go in but I told her another day as we were shopping. So a week later one rather dreary morning I asked if she would like to go to the museum, I have never seen her get dressed so quickly!

We caught the train into Exeter which she loved, she absolutely loves looking out of the window on the train and the views from Exmouth to Exeter are stunning.

As we reached the museum E was very excited, the museum is a beautiful grand building – as you can see it was a very dull day

Once inside I must have looked a bit lost, a nice young man came over and gave me a map and then E was able to choose a case to take around the museum, she chose a butterfly one which contained an outfit to wear, which E wasn’t interested in, a little cushion to kneel on, a magnifying glass which was E’s favourite item and a couple of other bits. I struggled to get a photo of the contents as E was busy with her case.

Here is what can be found in a ‘Bee’ case which is pretty much standard items.

We headed off and started in the Making History section which covered the story with the fragmentary remains of prehistoric Devon and up to Exeter in its ‘Golden Age’ of the 18th century. E was fascinated by all the costumes and displays.

As we walked round E was looking at items with her magnifying glass and telling me how much bigger everything looked. There are quite a few educational and interactive displays in the museum which E loved as did I. The first one we came to was a little house with a story next to it. The story was about a farmers house on Dartmoor and what jobs the farmer’s family had to do and explained how at night the farmers slept in the same room as the animals. As I was reading the story E was acting it out with the little figures and animals. She absolutely loved it and requested to go back there several times during our visit.

Other interactive displays include making a mosaic, trying on costumes, little screens to press buttons on for more information and there is also an amazing little film to watch that brings dramatic geological events to life from over 400 million years ago. I think we must have watched this at least ten times! E loved it and after watching it a couple of times she told me about Dinosaurs coming to play in the Triassic times and then told me how the Woolly Mammoth is from the ice age period, surprised me how much she remembered or understood in her own way.

We then headed upstairs and came across Case Histories first which was a big hit, there is an African bull elephant, a suspended whale and a Giraffe that the museum call Gerald!

There are a lot of exhibitions upstairs, meet the keepers which had a lot of remains from different periods, E was using her magnifying glass quite a lot. The next exhibition that captivated E’s interest was the World cultures section, a lot of the displays were large and interesting to her.

There are so many displays in the museum its hard to mention them all in a lot of details. One of the final displays we visited which E was really interested in, which surprised me, was Birds of a feather. A display of birds and an interactive birds database so can find out the names and more information on them. We spent quite a lot of time here, I think E enjoyed finding the birds on the screen.

We had an amazing afternoon at the museum, just before we left we stopped by the museum shop and Emily chose a butterfly mask to take home, the items in the gift shop were reasonably priced. There is a coffee shop, we didn’t visit it on this occasion but it looked to be quite busy.

We both had an amazing time at the museum and I am really impressed with what it has to offer. E is already asking to go again so I imagine we are going to be fairly frequent visitors.

If you are ever in Exeter I totally recommend stopping of at raam – Royal Albert Memorial Museum, it is a real gem with so much to see.

For more information take a look at their website