What's on in the area

Bygones Victorian Museum

Daily

Cost: £4.50; seniors £3.95; 4-14 yrs £3; under 4s free; family ticket (2 adults + 2 children) £13

Hours: Jul-Aug: 10am-10pm (until 6pm Fri-Sun); Sep, Oct & Mar-Jun: 10am-6pm; Nov-Feb: 10am-4pm (Sat, Sun & school holidays 10am-5pm)

The Bygones Victorian Museum lets visitors walk down a faithfully reproduced Victorian Street and view replica period rooms. The military-minded can experience what it was like to be incarcerated in the midst of the First World War, in a trench in France in 1916, or to hide in an Anderson shelter during the Second World War.

For the rail enthusiasts, not only is the mighty steam engine on show, but also a 28-foot model railway, evoking the golden age of steam in Britain, from the 1850s to the 1950s.

Breaking out of the historical theme, the museum also includes a Fantasyland of Myths and Legends which includes hundreds of fairy lights, a scene of changing guard at Buckingham Palace and what's described as an interactive volcano!

A privately-run project which opened on 23 May 1987, Bygones Victorian Museum is housed in an old cinema in St Marychurch, Torquay. The brainchild of Ken and Patricia Cuming, the impetus for opening a museum came from Ken's love of railways. When he bought a 27-ton steam engine from Falmouth docks in 1986 the family knew they needed a larger building to house it, and Bygones was born!

Bygones Victorian Museum