A few weeks ago I spent the day at the Tank Museum in Bovington, Dorset. Brilliant day and more tanks than you can shake a stick at. The guide was absolutely fascinating and seemed to know everything about tanks - construction techniques, armour, design, fire power, maintenance and barrel replacement etc etc. Although you have to wonder in these days of drones and missiles what the role of tanks will be in the future.

I can second both Hendon and Cosford as excellent places to visit if you have any interest in planes. Pre COVID I got Cosford virtually to myself in early spring.

Not free but the Scottish National Museum of Flight is also fascinating. It’s not confined to military items and it has a Concord and other civvy items of broader flight interest. They have a Dan Air Comet which may well be the very one that flew me to Mallorca on a student field trip in the 70’s. It was my first flight and I assumed that the way the wings rippled in flight was how all planes behaved. Blissful ignorance.

Just up the road (A1) is the De Havilland museum and another thirty miles or so, Shuttleworth.

Shuttleworth used to be a charming place. Anyone could drive in for free, have a cuppa and something to eat, while watching whatever was buzzing around, while the kids played in the excellent playground. Many days would have the collection's vehicles and aircraft out. Now you have to fork out fifteen quid per person just to drive in.

If you’re ever up north, I can recommend a visit to Elvington air museum, among other aircraft,they have the victor tanker “ lusty lindy “ , not sure if they still do it but they used to fire it up every so often and give it a blast down the runway, once it managed to partially take off but as it’s no longer airworthy, they had to shut it down pretty quickly, I’ve been to shuttleworth, and bovington, and thoroughly enjoyed them both,