Dartmouth Museum is very keen to get children and young people interested in their local history and there is plenty to see over the half-term holiday.

But there is one particular attraction that always goes down well as Joint Vice Chair of the museum Jonathan Turner explains: “What the children love most is the cutaway model of the Mayflower because you can see right inside the ship from top to bottom and you can see all the different places, the people, the different cabins and spaces, the animals, the dogs, the goats and it's just great fun as well as being totally educational.”

The museum was established in 1949 by historian Percy Russel and moved to its current site on the Butterwalk in 1954.

Jonathan explains the draw of the place to children: “I think everybody is interested in what happened in the past and to understand and different parts of the past interest different people.

“Some people like Romans and some people like the Tudors and some people love the idea of exploring the New World and I think for children one of the things that's interesting about the Mayflower is some of the first people to step ashore in America from the Mayflower were children.

Jonathan says there’s plenty more to get the brain cells going: “In every room we have a quiz, one for younger children and one for older children with small prizes at the end and they get totally absorbed in it.”

“It's a bit of fun sometimes, it's competitive with their brothers and sisters and at the end there's a pencil or whatever it might be that is the prize so it takes a bit of pressure off the parents and it means that young people learn for themselves.”

For more information visit: https://www.dartmouthmuseum.org/