James Alfred Wight

The home of James Alfred Wight - better known as Vet - sits in Thirsk, a market town in North Yorkshire that feels properly Yorkshire: stone buildings, cobbled streets, the sort of place where everyone knows the vet's name. Wight lived and worked here from 1940 until his death in 1995, and his house and surgery have been preserved as a modest but affecting museum dedicated to his life and work.

What you get is a real sense of a country veterinary practice from another era. The surgery still has its original equipment, the waiting room looks like it's stuck in 1970, and upstairs you can see where Wight actually lived - remarkably ordinary rooms for someone who became one of Britain's most beloved writers. The exhibits explain how he turned his daily work treating farm animals into the All Creatures Great and Small books that made him famous.

This appeals most to devoted fans of the books or the television adaptations, and to anyone with a genuine interest in rural veterinary history. It's not a vast attraction - you'll spend an hour here, maybe ninety minutes if you read everything. Families with younger children might find it a bit slow unless they've watched the telly series.

Thirsk itself is worth a wander, with decent shops and pubs. If you're staying at Woodland Lakes Lodges or Hillside Caravan Park nearby, it's a straightforward drive in. Worth the visit if you're a fan, but don't expect theme park energy - this is quiet, reflective, and very much about one man's working life.