Good FREE afternoon out! (National Football Museum)

Member Name: hugon

Product:	National Football Museum
Date:	04/11/04 (98 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Free, Lots to see, Plenty of parking

Disadvantages: Some displays broken when we were there, Perhaps a little TOO much for younger folk

During October half-term my girlfriend and I took a trip to the Football Museum at Preston to meet a friend we hadn’t seen for a while. When we got there, there were plenty of car parking spaces available. This was in the middle of the afternoon on a school holiday. I guess this is because they have to have enough parking there for the matches at Preston – so maybe an idea not to visit the museum on a matchday (although maybe you could use the viewing gallery as a sneaky way to watch the match!). Anyway, parking was free, as was entry to the museum – bonus!

I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised. There is a lot to see, right back to the very early days of football and everything is clearly labelled. You follow a path from the early days up to the present, there are wall displays telling you about ‘the olden days’, starting with the first amateur clubs, to the advent of professionalism. It’s not just old programs, shirts and boots – there are videos of famous and important matches, the benches you sit at to have a rest have buttons to press to enable you to listen to stories and people reminiscing and there are interactive displays where you stand in front of a display and listen to the story behind it. Unfortunately when we where there a few of these displays were not working. Still, never mind.

The museum is divided into two sections – the downstairs part I have just described, and a much more ‘hands on’ upstairs section which is much more kids-orientated. I imagine this would be quite refreshing for families as the downstairs section took us about an hour and a half to walk through, and we didn’t look at everything! I’d guess that younger ones might get a bit bored and restless by the end. However, upstairs they’ll have a ball – there’s a big table football set with cameras in the table which replays goals on a screen, a Match of the Day section where you can sit in front of a camera and commentate on some footage which is replayed onto a TV screen for others to watch, as well as several interactive displays with features on grounds, rules and supporters.

The café is situated just as you come out of the end of the first half and sells refreshments for quite reasonable prices. You can grab a sandwich or a meal if you need something to keep you going. There is the obligatory shop at the end, selling anything and everything related to football. A useful place to grab a present that’s a little out of the ordinary for the football fan in your life.

A lovely little place with a nice ambience around it. It wasn’t too busy when we where there which made it easy to go at our own pace and easy to read the information on the wall that we wanted to see. Plenty of ramps for wheelchair access and a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon out. Shame about the traffic on the way home, but you can’t have everything your own way!

Summary: