Arthur's Gorse

Explorer Tom Buckinghamshire County Museum in Aylesbury now invites visitors in as Discover Bucks Museum, and the building is part of the adventure. Behind the smart Georgian face, a Tudor wall painting and much older roof are hiding; apparently even the walls refused to stick to one period of history. The museum's main galleries follow Buckinghamshire's people and landscapes from deep geological time to today. Archaeology, natural history, art, clothes and photographs all get a turn, and the Lenborough Hoard brings a glittering heap of Anglo-Saxon silver coins into the story. The oldest part of the building began as a fifteenth-century guildhall, later became a Tudor house, and was then dressed up with a Georgian front. Ceeley House's eighteenth-century room still looks out towards the walled garden. Look closely at the painted wall and the Georgian plasterwork before rushing from case to case: this museum is a historical object as well as a home for them. Temporary exhibitions add fresh subjects, and the separate Roald Dahl Children's Gallery gives younger visitors a lively place to play with ideas from his stories. Its opening arrangements and tickets differ from the main museum, so check the operator's current details for the part you want to see. The entrance is on Church Street in central Aylesbury. I suspect the old building has spent centuries collecting gossip and now charges the exhibits rent to keep it quiet. That is my story; the coins and centuries of altered rooms are real. Come in for a county museum and you may find yourself studying a house, a hoard and half of Buckinghamshire before you remember why you first stepped through the door.