Milton Keynes Museum Review

I was pleasantly surprised by this place, I’m not sure what I was expecting. It’s bigger than I thought it would be and it covers so many different kinds of exhibit. There is a school room, a farmhouse kitchen, air raid shelter, a re-created high street, transport exhibit and connected earth exhibition. Since my first review of Milton Keynes Museum they’ve changed certain elements of the layout and they’ve opened the “new” building as an exhibition space.

The farmhouse

You start your visit to Milton Keynes Museum in the farmhouse. This is packed to the rafters with fascinating stuff, and you can touch almost all of it! There’s volunteers in every room who are great at demonstrating the different things and explain it all really well to the kids. In the parlour you can play a self-playing piano, in the other room you can play some other musical instruments and some games.

When I first visited Milton Keynes Museum to do a review Smallest Child was about 6/7 months old. We went during the school holidays and getting around the house was nearly impossible. What was at that stage the school room was the pinch point as everyone has to go through a narrow corridor between desks. They had various free craft activities going on in the school room which were lovely, but it did mean that the parents were hanging around in the narrow aisle whilst their children created their masterpieces. They did have live science experiments going on which my eldest two thought were fascinating. Now they’ve moved the school room that won’t be such an issue anymore.

The street of shops

The kids also particularly enjoyed the street of shops. There were too many questions about was it like that when I was a kid!!!??? (Thanks boys). I believe that during the winter they make it snow in here which is pretty cool.

Little word of warning – in the Post Office you can buy sweets. You know, proper sweets from a jar, for £1 per quarter. The museum is currently card only (like pretty much everywhere). We had hung around for about 5 minutes whilst the previous customers finished shopping, ordered bags for each of the kids, me and I was even kind enough to buy some for Hubby! It was only at this point the lady serving mentioned that it was CASH ONLY. Like most people post covid, I literally had zero cash on me! She said that we could go to the cafe and get some change from there (which was true) but it did mean I had to walk three kids, including a 4 year old, away from the bags of sweets that had been right in front of them. I spoke to another lady and she said that she was told when they walked in it was cash only, so I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt, plus mistakes happen. A sign outside (there isn’t one at the time of writing, I double checked) would have saved a lot of hassle). The God of 4 year olds was smiling down on my today and Smallest Child was disappointed, but not having a meltdown about it. Plus l, they all ended up with cake AND sweets in the end.

Connected Earth

The Connected Earth exhibition at Milton Keynes Museum basically made me feel like a living history exhibit! But it’s wonderful. The number of times I said I had one of those when I was young was quite frankly scary.

You can touch everything (pretty much) in here. They volunteers also take you through how things work and have so much knowledge to share. The kids got to be telephone operators, they got to phone each other using old school dial up phones! They’ve also for an impressive range of novelty phones. Spiderman, Darth Vader, Taz, Hello Kitty, they’re all there.

Oh, and there’s a Tardis. Well a police telephone box, but we all know its real purpose!

The other exhibitions at Milton Keynes Museum

This museum covers so many different parts of Milton Keynes’ history – walking between the different areas seems like you’re walking around different museums. It’s much bigger than most “local” museums, and you’ll be there a lot longed. There are plenty of hands-on exhibits which always goes down well with the kids. We spoke to several different volunteers and they were all lovely.

In places it feels a bit like a jumble of lots of random stuff, but they’re actually really good at labelling what everything is and telling you the stories behind it. The entire museum was really engaging for all three kids.

It is worth noting that at the back of the cafe there is an old printers. You can have a go at typesetting and printing. Given that most children have only ever known laptops and tablets it was a real eye-opener for my lots.

There’s also an Anderson Shelter in the garden that you can go inside. That really made the boys think. All 5 of us squashed in there for hours on end with bombs dropping all around us? No thanks. I think it’s things like this that have such a huge impact on kids. If you want them to be interested in history, they need to be able to imagine it.

Our Milton Keynes Museum Review

I think it’s the staff and the interactivity that really make Milton Keynes Museum such a great family day out. Actually, it’s a great place to visit even without the kids. There’s lots to see, lots to explore and it’s really interesting. It’s not big, but you’ll be there for a few hours at least. On our most recent visit to Milton Keynes Museum to update this review it was considerable quieter than on our previous visit. I’m assuming that’s largely covid related, but it’s also a real shame because more people should see this!

Admission cost

£36 for a family ticket (which includes up to 4 children) but tickets are valid for a full year. Blue Peter badge holders get in FREE – up to two BP holders per full paying adult. Under 5’s go free. For the latest opening times and ticket prices visit their website.

Parking and how to get there

Parking – Free, on-site

Address – McConnell Drive, off H2 Millers Way, Stacey Bushes, MK12 5EL

Toilets

Yes, including baby change, in various places around the site.

Food

Cafe on-site, very reasonable prices and good home-cooked food. The cakes are delicious.

What’s nearby?

Willen Lake (read the review here) is a great, free place to visit to stretch your day at Milton Keynes Museum out to a full day. We also did the Stony Stratford version of Treasure Map Trails, which is just a 7 minute drive away and has free parking. If you use this affiliate link and the code FREETIMEWITHTHEKIDS you can save 10% on any of the maps in their collection.

I’m Vicky and I am a mum of three living in Aylesbury. I set up Free Time with the Kids to review free and cheap family days out in Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Oxfordshire, mainly because I kept forgetting all the fabulous places that were recommended to me!! I love getting out and about with the kids (and hubby of course) and we have adventures all over the place. My reviews tell you all the things you need to know about the family days out and activities we’ve done such as how much it costs, if there’s parking, toilets and if there’s a cafe or if picnics are allowed. I really hope you find the reviews helpful. If there’s anywhere that you’d recommend please get in touch contact@freetimewiththekids.com or get in touch via Facebook