Just a few miles down the road in central Oxford is the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology (01865) 278000. Founded in 1683, it is one of the most famous museums in the country, and amongst the world’s oldest public museums. The Ashmolean is part of Oxford University and has some fascinating displays. Gallery talks and tours can be arranged to see the objects, which stretch from the earliest recorded human history to the Victorian period. The museum’s collection of Egyptology is particularly impressive. Free admission.

Just a stone’s throw from the Ashmolean is the amazing and slightly eccentric Pitt Rivers Museum (01865) 270949, packed with weird and wonderful objects, including shrunken heads, brought back by explorers from all corners of the globe. There are collections from the Pacific Islands, Hawaii, Japan, all parts of Africa, and all of the Americas. If you want to get a taste for these places without even having to step on an aeroplane, it is difficult to think of a better place than the PR museum. Free admission.

The Pitt Rivers is part of the Oxford University Museum (01865) 272950. Among OUM’s most famous features are dodos, and the Oxfordshire dinosaurs. In 2005, together with the Pitt Rivers Museum, OUM won the Guardian Family Friendly Museum Award. Free admission.