Workhouse Museum

The Workhouse Museum in Ripon is one of the most complete surviving Victorian workhouses in Britain, run by Ripon Museum Trust. A visit starts in the original gatehouse, where you follow an inmate's route from admission through the baths and fumigation process to the cells where vagrants slept. The main block shows the master's study, pantry, classroom and inmates' dining hall. Behind the buildings, a kitchen garden grown with 1860s methods and heritage crops gives children somewhere to sit, picnic and see what the residents once grew. The museum runs family trails and drop-in activities, and the atmosphere is deliberately grim, so younger children may need reassuring. Tickets cover all three Ripon Museums sites and are valid for twelve months.