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9 Best Museums In Lincolnshire
Aviation runs through this list, and an airfield museum is its own particular sort of day. International Bomber Command Centre, Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre and Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Centre all sit on or beside old airfield ground, which in practice means going outside between buildings, standing about in the open, and wind with very little to stop it. Dressed for that, the day works; in a thin jacket it does not. The Bomber Command site also carries a subject that lands differently at different ages, and it is worth a conversation on the way there. The rest of the nine are gentler. Museum of Lincolnshire Life and North Lincolnshire Museum are broad local collections, Louth Museum is small and specific, The Village Church Farm is a buildings-and-yard sort of site, and The Bubblecar Museum is precisely what its name promises and rather good fun with a child who likes odd vehicles.
Top museums in Lincolnshire
Showing 1–9 of 9
MuseumsInternational Bomber Command Centre
SightseeingLincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre
SightseeingBattle of Britain Memorial Flight Centre
MuseumsMuseum of Lincolnshire Life
MuseumsThe Village Church Farm
MuseumsNorth Lincolnshire Museum
MuseumsLouth Museum
MuseumsThe Bubblecar Museum
MuseumsThe Collection Museum
Four of the nine carry an outdoor flag alongside the indoor one, which is your cue to pack coats even for a museum trip. Some of these sit on operational or restricted ground, so find out what needs booking in advance rather than on the doorstep. And with a subject this weighty, decide in advance how much you want to explain, because a child who has been told what they are looking at gets far more from it than one who has not.
Museums in Lincolnshire: FAQs
Which of these works with a young child?
The Bubblecar Museum and The Village Church Farm are the easiest at the younger end, because both are built around things a child can see and understand with no background at all. A big aviation site works too, on the aircraft alone, since a four-year-old needs no history to be impressed by the sheer size of something. The memorial sites are better saved for later.
How much of the visit is outdoors?
More than the indoor flags suggest at the airfield sites, because exhibits are in separate buildings and you walk between them. Four of the nine carry an outdoor flag as well as an indoor one. Treat those as half-outdoor days: proper coats, shoes that cope with wet grass and hard standing, and no assumption that you can dash from one shelter to the next.
Is the subject matter too much for children?
That turns on the child, and on how you frame it. International Bomber Command Centre deals with loss on a large scale and does not soften it, which is right for the place and heavy for a young visitor. Older children often engage with it seriously and remember it for years. Younger ones tend to fix on the aircraft and the machinery, which is fine, and you do not have to deliver the whole story on a first visit.
How should we dress for it?
Warm, windproof layers, because an airfield is flat and exposed and there is a reason they were built that way. Something to eat, since not every site can be relied on for food. Ear defenders if your child is noise-sensitive and engines might be running. And a plan for the drive home, because these visits generate questions and the car is where they arrive.