Best places: History museums in England

Recreations of WWI trenches and the Blitz, many tanks and planes and revolving military exhibitions.

Railway history & artefacts, with 300 vehicles including steam world record holder, the Mallard.

Historic area with iconic attractions like Nelson's HMS Victory, HMS Warrior & the Mary Rose Museum.

16th-century, English Renaissance style mansion housing natural history museum, set in parkland.

Modern building for displays including Henry VIII's armour, war histories and experimental weaponry.

9-deck WWII warship-turned-museum with naval guns, permanently moored on the Thames.

Exploration of life in an 1850s iron-working town, with a coal seam, forge, steam engine & shops.

👍👍 What an amazing museum, absolutely fantastic. Extremely informative with guides willing to answer any questions you may have. Stunning displays of military equipment most of which you can sit in, guns and weapons you can hold. The tank, the spitfire, the hospital truck, all the vehicles, truly amazi...

Restored Victorian fortress housing a big gun collection and displays tracing artillery development.

Transport displays from cycles to cars, horse-drawn carriages, trams and a simulated 1940s street.

Famous naturalist's restored home, with the study where he wrote On the Origin of Species.

Conservation center with rare-breed heavy horses, blacksmith displays, petting zoo & vintage trucks.

Open-air museum with collections in historic buildings on rural local life from Iron Age to 1950s.

Fire-fighting exhibits and 40 emergency service vehicles on display in a 1900 former fire station.

Grisly history of surgery and medicine with gruesome instruments and preserved specimens.

Secret underground headquarters where Prime Minister Winston Churchill lived and worked during WWII.

Exploring British naval history, with a ship simulator, nautical oddities and interactive games.

A fully reconstructed Viking village complete with the sights and smells, and an adjoining museum.

Medieval Anglican cathedral with a 15th-century screen and a Norman crypt holding modern sculpture.

RAF base active from 1916 to 1996, now housing exhibits on military & civilian aviation.