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Cotswold Motoring Museum is located in the Old Mill at Bourton-on-the-Water.  It was founded in 1978 by a private collector, Mike Cavanagh, who had amassed a substantial collection while living in South Africa over 20 years.  He began with a 1929 Brooklands Riley that he bought for £30 in 1959 and went from there, including signs and memorabilia.  He shipped his entire collection to Britain when returning home, found the Old Mill disused and for sale and established the museum.  Mike retired in 1999 and the museum was sold.  It now includes some 40 cars, several motorbikes, as a large collection of toys, an enormous amount of motoring memorabilia and even a couple of caravans.

The Devil's Porridge Museum tells the story of the greatest munitions factory on earth and the lives of the people who worked there. HM Factory Gretna opened in 1916 in response to the Shells Crisis of 1915 and manufactured RDB Cordite.  Cordite was (or is) a powerful explosive, whose ingredients include a mixture of guncotton and nitro-glycerine, which was said by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to be the Devil's Porridge.  HM Factory Gretna stretched over 9 miles between England and Scotland and at its height employed 30,000 people, about 70% of them women.  It included two planned towns, Eastriggs and Gretna.  Now, little remains except the towns.  The museum also includes displays relating to Quintinshill Railway Disaster and how the area contributed to the country's defence through World War Two and beyond.

Edward Elgar was one of England’s greatest musical composers; his works include the Enigma Variations and Land of Hope and Glory.  He was born on 2 June 1857 in Lower Broadheath, about three miles from Worcester, and died at his home, Marl Bank, in Worcester on 23 February 1934.  He is said to have been inspired by the countryside around Worcester and the Malvern Hills.  Elgar's birthplace, a cottage called the Firs, is now a museum with a garden and visitor centre owned by the National Trust.  Elgar's father William had an established music business in Worcester, some three miles from Broadheath and only spent weekends at the cottage. Apparently, the cottage in the countryside was his mother’s choice, rather than his father’s.  However, they later moved to 10 High Street in the city, living above the music business. The shop is no longer there, but a plaque on the Gifford Hotel marks the approximate location.  Sadly, and inexplicably, his house at Marl Bank was demolished in 1969.  Next to Cathedral Square is a bronze statue of Elgar, situated so that he is looking at the Cathedral he loved.  The statue was the work of Kenneth Potts and was unveiled by HRH Prince of Wales on 2 June 1981.

The Fleet Air Arm Museum is Europe's largest naval aviation Museum and tells the story of the Royal Navy in the air. There are over 90 aircraft, from biplanes to supersonic jets, plus thousands of other artefacts, on show in four exhibition halls. In addition, it houses the first British Concorde, which you can go on board, and the 'Aircraft Carrier Experience', a fascinating tour round a realistic mocked-up carrier. The museum is exceptionally well laid out - one of the best.

Framlingham is a late 12th century castle once owned by the Earls and Dukes of Norfolk. By the mid 16th century, it was in the hands of Mary Tudor, elder daughter of Henry VIII, and it was here that she gathered support and heard that she had been proclaimed queen in 1553. In the 17th century it became the local poorhouse. The imposing walls of the castle are still pretty much standing, though the other medieval buildings have gone. Unusually, it is possible to walk right round the walls at Framlingham, giving marvellous views. There is also a small exhibition on site and an interesting local museum, the Lanman Trust's Museum.