Take a tour of the Peak District Mining Museum

Ever wanted to use the phrase “see kids; it could be worse, you could be working down a mine”? Yes? Well thanks to the Peak District Mining Museum, you can now find out exactly what it would have been like.

The climbing shafts and hazard tunnels on the ground floor of the Matlock Bath Pavilion are so realistic that the local emergency rescue teams use them for training. Squeezing through the network of nooks, deep in the Derbyshire countryside you’ll get an authentic insight into the squalid working conditions experienced by miners – and that includes children – for hundreds of years.

Next, venture upstairs to learn about what happened to all these minerals once they were removed – and how the men and children working below ground made such lucrative money for those above. With all that to think about, there’ll be no complaining about school on Monday.