Preservation Hall

The building itself stops you in your tracks - a proper Victorian structure that's been lovingly kept intact while everything around Peterborough has changed. Preservation Hall does exactly what it says on the tin: it saves things. Old furniture, tools, domestic bits and pieces, the sort of everyday objects that usually end up in skips but tell you more about how people actually lived than any grand house tour ever could.

You're walking through rooms arranged as they might have been fifty or a hundred years ago. There's something genuinely absorbing about handling the detail - the weight of an old iron, the way a Victorian kitchen was organised, letters and photographs pinned to walls. It's intimate rather than spectacular, which means history types will find real value here, but families with young children might lose interest after an hour or so.

The museum does free or very cheap admission, though it's worth checking ahead as opening hours aren't always posted clearly. Allow two to three hours if you're thorough, less if you're just passing through. Come on a weekday morning if you can - weekends get busier and the rooms feel cramped.

For a caravan holiday based at Ferry Meadows or Nene Outdoors - both within striking distance - this works as a wet afternoon stop rather than a headline attraction. Peterborough itself has more impressive draws, but Preservation Hall rewards anyone interested in social history and the small stories that make up the past.