One of my most vivid childhood memories comes from a school trip I took to the Imperial war museum when I was like 9 or 10 or something (definitely towards the end of primary school). It was the best day of my life (or so I thought at the time). My favourite part was a blitz experience we took part in. I distinctly remember the emotions I felt, the smells, the action…it makes me emotional just to remember because I loved it so much and I believe it was the point in my life that I truly fell in love with museums and history. It definitely is the point that World War 2/The Great wars became the most intriguing chapter for me and I have since been in awe and had an emotional connection to anything connected to this period. When I talk about this trip 20 years on (hello feeling old) I get excited and giddy because it was so amazing and such a fantastic museum.
My love for museums and history is thankfully reciprocated by Mr Smith (though maybe not so emotionally) so when we were invited last Saturday to go and check out the NEW exhibit entitled “Blitzed Brits” over at The Imperial war museum North we jumped at it and all of us were excited to see what awaited. It was a wonderful opportunity for a great family day out and struck a cord with it being my all time fave museum!
The exhibit is perfect for all ages, it is taken from a ‘Horrible Histories’ angle and so has a lot of humour and familiar characters for older children. I particularly enjoyed the pigeons little comments like “fat chance” next to a comment about peace and the wording of things like “people rushing around like headless chickens”; brilliant, it sparks so much imagination and really brings it to the level of the kids!
Of course Megan is only 3 and Ethan 4 but we spent over an hour in the exhibit exploring life for Brits in the blitz; experiencing a black out, an Anderson shelter, looking at rationing, Evacuations and life in the country side. There the kids enjoyed a floor game to see which family they would be evacuated to and helping to milk a cow down on the farm…painted with stripes so that it would be visible in a black out (Genius?).
There was a lovely dress up area and various computer info points and games throughout. SO much to keep little minds and hands busy and lots of interesting facts for older children and adults.
Ethan went nuts when he turned a corner to see a large gun(?!) type vehicle and even took time at the end to draw a picture of his favourite part of the exhibit to let them know! Megs loved crawling through the tunnels in search of survivors as well as checking out cooking in the war.
It was a fab morning and made me so happy to see the kids loving history on their own unique levels. We had a lovely time together and learn’t and experienced a lot. The rest of the museum is also very informative and moving, but I would say overwhelming for younger children in parts. They did however (being little thrill seekers) thoroughly enjoy taking a life up the shard for gorgeous views over Manchester.
We of course finished up with some lovely treats in the Museum cafe…the best array of gourmet/quality food I’ve ever seen in a Museum cafe and it was pretty reasonable too. I had a lovely Jam & Cream scone with home made lemonade and the kids some little boxes of various items…the sandwiches looked exquisite, so with that and the wonderful adventure we had in the exhibit, we cannot wait to go back for another visit over the summer holidays and do it all again. It is an excellent day out and I hope you will take some time to check it out this summer!
Disclaimer: We were invited by the museum to preview this exhibit, all thoughts, emotions and words are my own!
I went on this trip and I loved it too! I was about 10 and It was the best school trip ever! Maybe we should take Sylvia here- I bet she would love it! Just got to build up some energy first lol!
Angela xx
I went on this trip too!!! Love the photos #bestandworst xxx
Get in Rachel 🙂 did you enjoy it too? x
This looks great, I was brought up to have an interest in war as my Dad was and still is a military nut! I’d love to go this exhibition. I can thoroughly recommend Normandy if you like all things military too, lots of museums there!Thanks for linking up to the #bestandworst xx
This looks so good Mary! I would love to go! Your kids are so good at dressing up too! Win will never play any type of dress up – other than shorts! xx