I love finding somewhere new to explore, and discovering new days out. While I mostly write about things that are local to us, there is the odd occasion we venture a little further out. Whilst on holiday near Hampshire, we discovered Milestones Museum, a museum of living history taking you back to the Victorian era. Milestones Museum is nearly 2 hours away from us in Milton Keynes, but we absolutely loved our visit here, so I couldn’t not share about it with you!
Milestones Museum is made up of a network of streets that have been recreated according to those found in Victorian and 1930s Hampshire, and you can wander around and explore different buildings and experience what it would be like in the Victorian era.
When you enter Milestones Museum you walk down the stairs (or take the lift) and you’re transported onto Victorian streets. You’re free to walk around and explore Milestones as you wish, there’s no set route to walk around, and there’s no time limit so you’re welcome to go at your own pace. We started off at the pier (which was easily our favourite area) before heading to the main cobbled streets, but found ourselves going back and forth to our favourite bits.
There are all sorts of things to explore as you walk around, and you’ll want to make sure you pick up a ration book to exchange it for sweets in the old fashioned sweet shop!
You can find an old school, a teddy bear museum, the old pub, and we even found some old maps of Milton Keynes near the train station!
As I mentioned, the pier was our favourite area. Milestones pier is an old penny arcade where you can change your money for old Victorian coins to use some of the machines. The first half of the pier is all old coin machines and the other half takes 50p’s and you can use retro arcade machines – which we all loved! There was also things you would expect to see on a pier, like crazy mirrors, a photo booth and photo opportunities!
Walking around you’ll spot a lot of vintage vehicles which have been restored as they would have been in older times. I really loved the old fire engine and the tram cart!
As well as different types of businesses to explore there’s also an area to show what the houses used to look like, complete with allotments. Our oldest, Reuben, found this area really interesting – espically with everything that they would have had in their houses!
Milestones Museum is a really child-friendly museum. My kids loved walking around and exploring anyway, but there were frequent bits for kids as you walked around, with lots of games in the square, a kids corner in the vintage tea tent, and there was even an activity room for under 5’s. We visited during the summer holidays so there were also activities out as you walked around that the staff were showing to the children.
We absolutely loved our visit here, I think we spent around 4 hours here exploring and I could have easily gone round again! While it’s not very local to us, it’s somewhere I would definitely visit again in the future.
How to Find it
Milestones Museum is located at Basingstoke Leisure Park, Churchill Way West, Basingstoke RG22 6PG – use the map below for directions. There’s plenty of free parking outside.
Good to Know
- Milestones museum is open 10 am – 4.45 pm Tuesday – Sunday. They are closed Mondays, excluding school holidays
- Tickets cost £17.50 for adults, and £12 for children, concessions are £14, and under 5’s are free
- Your ticket includes entry for the whole year, so you only pay once and can return as much as you like!
- Milestones museum runs various events throughout the year, you can find out more here
- Milestones museum is accessible, however, there are cobbles and tramlines which wheelchair users might find difficulty with
- There are audio guides available for free in a variety of different languages
- There is an onsite cafe serving hot food and snacks, and a vintage tea tent serving cakes and hot drinks.
