Old School Gallery & Cafe

The Old School Gallery & Cafe sits in converted schoolhouse premises - the sort of place you stumble upon while driving between Yeovil and the Dorset coast and think, right, let's stop here for a proper look. It's part working gallery space, part cafe, which means you can actually spend a couple of hours browsing local art and work or photographs without feeling pressured to buy anything. The building itself is the draw - all that Victorian institutional architecture that someone's clearly done up without stripping the character out of it.

Family groups will find it manageable. Kids won't get bored for more than an hour unless they're particularly keen on visual art, but the cafe keeps everyone happy afterwards, and there's usually a decent cake selection. Walking types heading through the area should factor in twenty minutes to half an hour minimum if you're going to have a proper wander round the exhibitions.

It works particularly well as a middle-of-the-day stop if you're based at Swallowfield Glamping nearby - breaks up the routine between outdoor pursuits. The building's worth seeing even if the current exhibitions don't grab you. Bring cash if you think you might buy something, and check ahead for opening times, as independent places like this sometimes shift their hours seasonally.