Mouseman Showroom and Viewing Gallery

Robert Thompson was born in Kilburn in 1876 and spent his life making furniture from English oak in the village, working the surfaces with an adze and signing every piece with a small carved mouse. The workshop is still there, still making, and the showroom and viewing gallery are open free to anyone who wants to look. On a weekday you can stand at the gallery window and watch the benches at work below, which is a rarer thing than it used to be. It takes 45 minutes and costs nothing, so it slots into a day rather than dominating it.

One thing to be clear about before you set out: the Mouseman Visitor Centre and the T-Cafe are closed. Older guidebooks and blog posts still send people to Kilburn expecting a museum and lunch, and they arrive disappointed. What is open is the working showroom and the viewing gallery, and on their own terms they are well worth the trip.

From Tea Time Cafe on the market place, take the A170 Scarborough road east out of Thirsk. After roughly two miles, turn right and follow the lane into Kilburn. The workshop, gallery, showroom and car park sit together on your left as you come into the village. It is about seven miles and 15 minutes.

There is no bus. Kilburn is car only from Thirsk in every season, and the summer weekend Moorsbus M5 that serves Coxwold, Byland, Ampleforth and Helmsley does not help you here. If you do not drive, this is one to fold into a lift or a taxi trip that also takes in Sutton Bank.

Start in the viewing gallery, which looks down into the workshop, then walk the showroom slowly. The furniture is the point, but so is the hunt: every piece carries the carved mouse somewhere, sometimes obvious, sometimes tucked under a rail, and children find them faster than adults. The showroom carries smaller items too, so you can leave with something the size of a bread board rather than a refectory table. From there, St Mary's Church in the village has an oak memorial chapel, and the footpath up to the Kilburn White Horse leaves from the edge of the village.

Watching the craftsmen is what lifts this above a furniture shop. The adzed surfaces, the pegged joints and the weight of the oak make a lot more sense when you have seen the tools in someone's hands. The mouse hunt keeps children interested for longer than you would expect, and the price of admission being nothing at all means an unsuccessful visit costs you only the diesel.

Come on a weekday if you want to see the workshop in use, because Saturday is showroom only and closes at noon. Friday afternoons finish early too, at 3.45pm. Ring ahead if you are making a special journey, since hours at a working business can shift. This is one of the better places to head when the weather turns, along with Nunnington Hall, because you are indoors the whole time. Pair it with the White Horse if it is dry, but take boots with a grip, since the path up is steep and gets slippery after rain. Sutton Bank and Byland Abbey are both a short drive on, which makes an easy half day out of the three. There is nowhere to eat at the workshop now, so plan food around it.