A spot of Roman history in neighbouring St Albans

If you'd like to view our reel of our visit see here. 

On Saturday 5th March, with my husband away on a business trip and wet weather forecast I was wondering what to do with my two boys to keep them occupied.

I remember my eldest (year 4) had told me they he was now learning about The Romans at school and I had an idea. So we set off on an adventure to Verulamium Museum in St Albans.

The Journey was about 35 minutes by car, my sat nav did not take us to exactly the right place but i just followed the road signs until we arrived. There was ample parking, with pay and display metres and public toilets there too.

Built on the site of one of the largest Roman cities in Britain, Verulamium Museum is filled with ancient treasures and some of the finest mosaics outside of the Mediterranean.

The outside of the museum is visually stunning and we spent some time just looking at the structure and marvelling at it. Entry (and exit) is via the gift shop, this is a little annoying because i immeadiately had to usher the boys away from the shiny things and towards the desk to pay. Eventually i bribed them that IF they were good I would buy them something at the end ("I want the rubber duck" My 4 year old shouted in reference to a roman themed rubber duck on display!! Souvenirs are so random arent they!?!)

The staff were super friendly. It was a saturday so the musuem was open 11-3:30 and we arrived around 11:30am.There is also a Roman Theatre a short distance from the musuem which you can buy a joint ticket for but we did not do so on this occasion.

Admission to Verulamium Museum

Free to residents of St Albans City & District - please bring proof of address
Adults - £6.00          
Children (under 16s) - £3.00          
Under 5s - Free          
Family Ticket (2 adults + 2 children or 1 adult + up to 4 children) - £15

Never too young for a musuem visit!

I have taken my two children to museums from a very young age, some of my foundest memories are our many visits to hertford museum and of my two as toddlers toddling around tring musuem point in awe at all the animals. I was a little hesitant to come here however, my eldest is very much interested in history and in fact pretty much ditched his uncool mum and annoying little brother (his words not mine) as soon as we arrived as he parked himself next to some adults watching a documentary on the Verulamium, but i need not have worried.

Although obviously a lot of what was on display went over his head, he still enjoyed looking at the amazing mosaics and the shiny coins and pressing all the interactive display screens (and i mean ALL of them!) , and trying on the Roman Clothes and playing a Roman board game with his brother and generally just milling around, he also really liked the skeletons (bit weird but hey hes 4!). Having said that he clearly took in some of what he saw and we spoke about as later that day he proudly told me that Romans liked to wear shoes when they died so they could walk to the afterlife...

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The Museum was perfectly pitched to my 8 year old , who has a keen interest in history and he was enthralled by the many exciting exhibitis.

As a parent i loved the lay out of the musuem, its all on one level making exploring the wonders of Roman life a little easier, we could immerse ourselves in recreated Roman rooms and admire the craftsmanship of the intricate large-scale mosaics on display. 

The museum isn't big, but is free flow meaning you can go round the musuem as many times as you would like , for this reason i felt able to let the children explore at will, i wasn't hugely bothered if they lost interest in one exhibit and hurried off to the next as something (usually shiny) caught their eye. 

All in all I would say we were in the musuem for about 1.5 hours, after this the children were hungry and so we headed off in search of the cafe. You have to leave the musuem to get to the cafe, I asked for directions from the friendly staff who were happy to advise. You need to leave the musuem and turn left walk past the toilets through a little gate and the cafe will be on your right (a few minutes walk.)

We have visitied Verulamium park before (just never the musuem and it has a great park and spalsh park so we will definately be returning again in the warmer months.)

We had a lovely morning/afternoon at Verulamium Musuem, it felt like an adventure because it was a new place for us, we all learnt some new things and we felt it made a really nice change to our usual wet weather plans. Maybe you'll consider a musuem visit on a rainy day sometime soon? For more information on Verulamium Museum see here. 

Thank you for reading

Kayleigh & The Boys

XxxX