Thirsk Museum

Thomas Lord was born in this house in 1755 and went on to found the London cricket ground that still carries his name, which makes a modest pair of cottages on Kirkgate a small pilgrimage for anyone who follows the game. The museum built around that fact is a good deal broader than cricket, though. It is free, it is run by volunteers, and it holds the sort of local collection that only exists because people in one town kept things: the Busby Stoop chair with its reputation for being cursed, the bones known as the Saxon Giant, and rooms given over to local industry, farming, costume and toys.

From Tea Time Cafe at 87 Market Place, walk up Kirkgate. The museum is at numbers 14 to 16, opposite the Zillah Bell Gallery, three minutes at an ordinary pace on flat pavement. The World of James Herriot is a few steps further along the same street, which is why most people do the two in one go.

If you are driving, leave the car on the Market Place, where the first hour is free, or at Marage Road. Neither is more than a few minutes from the door, and Kirkgate is too narrow to be worth attempting a park on.

Give the Thomas Lord displays your first ten minutes, because they set up the rest. Then the Busby Stoop chair, which is the object visitors come out talking about. The Saxon Giant bones are the other headline exhibit.

After that it is room by room through the town's own story: local industry, farming tools, costume, a toy room that children slow down in, and the cricketing memorabilia. Three quarters of an hour covers it properly. Twenty minutes gets you the highlights if you are short of time, and the volunteers on the desk will point you at them if you say so.

Free entry is the headline, and it is remarkable for what is inside. The Thomas Lord connection gives the place a claim no other small museum in Yorkshire can make. The Busby Stoop chair is the one exhibit people photograph. Beyond the named pieces, the strength here is the volunteers: ask a question about almost any object and you will usually get a story back that is not on the label.

Check the season before you travel. The museum closes for the winter, and in 2026 its last day is 31 October. Last admission is 3pm on weekdays and 12.30pm on a Saturday, which catches out people who leave it until after a long lunch. Wheelchair users should know the ground floor is ramped but the first floor is stairs only, with an iPad virtual tour standing in for the upper rooms. Put something in the donation box on the way out. And do the World of James Herriot on the same trip, since the two sit on the same short street and the contrast between a free volunteer museum and a national attraction is half the pleasure.