Indoor Activities in Stowmarket

Mid Suffolk Leisure Centre covers the widest span if everyone swims, though it records open space too, so not all of it is under a roof. For a genuine downpour, Barnville suits younger children and The Regal suits older ones, and both are recorded as indoor only. Splitting a day between two of these is often easier than forcing one to work for everybody at once.

Food Museum records both kinds of space and occupies a site of buildings and grounds rather than a single hall, so it behaves more like an open-air museum than a gallery. That makes it strong on a dry day and partial shelter on a wet one. Children who like animals, machinery and doing things get more from it than children who want to read. Check what is open.

No. Heritage railways work to their own running calendar, and Mid-Suffolk Light Railway records both kinds of space at a site where the interesting parts are largely in the open. Turning up on a non-running day gives you a very different visit from the one you imagined. Their own page is the authority on what is happening, and it repays reading properly rather than skimming.

The Regal appears in our indoor play category, which is a filing quirk. It is the town's cinema and theatre, and as a wet-afternoon answer for children who will sit through a film it is one of the more highly rated entries here. For a child who needs to move rather than sit, Barnville is the one to look at instead of it.