F

rom toys to taxidermy, fashion to football and Vikings to viaducts, England has museums for pretty much every subject going. Best of all, though, is that many of them are free.

As you’d expect, London has some real big hitters – the V&A , the Natural History Museum and the British Museum being just a few – but the smaller, off-the-beaten track establishments are worth a visit, too.

In Shoreditch, East London, for example, you’ll find the Geffrye Museum – a row of beautiful old alms houses that have been decorated to reflect England’s changing interior design trends, from Elizabethan times to the prsent day. And just down the road in Bethnal Green you’ll find the V&A’s Museum of Childhood , which has a rather cool selection of children’s toys - don’t miss the giant dolls’ houses.

Meanwhile, Jane Austen addicts should take a pilgrimage to the ever-so-elegant townhouse in Bath where the writer lived; and why not pop into the Museum of Costume  .

Maybe Roald Dahl's more your bag, though? In which case you’ll love the museum that’s dedicated to his life and writing, in Buckinghamshire. Or for something slightly different try Tring’s Natural History Museum , which houses the vast taxidermy collection horded by eccentric Edwardian, Walter Rothschild. Not the kind of place you’d want to be left alone in overnight…

If you prefer football to fiction, pull on your home strip and head to The National Football Museum in Manchester, one of the best collections of footy memorabilia in the world.

And who can resist a spot of time travelling, to the year 975 to be exact, at the Jorvik Viking Centre in York. Here, you can discover gruesome tales about the Nordic warriors, dig for Viking treasures in the excavation pit, learn cool Norse words and see how much Viking blood runs through your veins.

And sticking with the warrior theme, the Great North Museum: Hancock in Newcastle lets you explore Hadrian's Wall without a drop of rain in sight. Its interactive model details the history of the epic roman fortification, as well mapping all the forts, milecastles and museums you can visit.