Over half term we stayed with my parents in Berkshire and during our stay they took us to the River and Rowing Museum in Henley. The road to the museum was flooded in places and the adjacent park mostly under water, with benches half submerged.

The museum’s building is beautiful, using plenty of glass, oak and steel. Its design was influenced by Oxfordshire barns, the local riverside boathouses and the temporary tents that transform the riverbanks around Henley every summer for Henley Regatta. The architect was David Chipperfield and in 1999 the building was given the accolade Building of the Year by the Royal Fine Arts Commission.

The first gallery that we entered was the magical Wind in the Willows exhibition. I have just finished reading Kenneth Grahame’s riverside tale with Tribe number 3, so she already knew the story, but we were all entranced walking through the extraordinary 3-D models whilst listening to the beautifully read story on the audio guides borrowed at the start of the exhibit. Ratty, Mole, Toad and Badger all came alive as we walked

past riverside picnics and gypsy caravans, through the scary Wild Wood in to the safety of Badger’s home and finally to the battle to return Toad Hall to its rightful owner. The Tribe absolutely loved it and I think I’ll be reading it to Tribe number 2 next!

From there we headed upstairs to the rowing exhibit – the only history of rowing in the UK. From ancient times, gondolas in Venice to todays high tech 21st Century rowing

‘machines’. You can even see how you do on a rowing machine and how you do as a team – can you keep in time?? There was rather a lot of shouting from the female members of the Tribe during this! The exhibit and film about the Row2Recovery crew in the 2011 Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge was pretty inspirational – an extraordinary group of men on an extraordinary and gruelling Atlantic crossing of 3,000 miles (www.row2recovery.com).

The river exhibit taught us all more about the history of the Thames and its geology and natural history and there was also an exhibit all about Swan Upping, but to be honest, I can understand why the ticket is annual. There was so much to see and read that after a couple of hours even the adults were all ready for a break!

There is a pleasant cafe on the ground floor, by the entrance to the museum with a terrace overlooking Marsh Meadows (should clement weather ever return…), but it was still light and spacious inside – (had the car park not been flooded, car parking would have been free too) – nice coffee and happy Tribe!

I’m not sure how we’ve never visited the museum in the past (it opened at the end of 1998), but we have now and I would thoroughly recommend it. Your ticket is valid for a year, so you can return as many times as you want which is great, particularly if you definitely know you’ll be back. Our family ticket for 2 adults and 3 children (the littlest went free) was £30.50 – pretty good value if, like us, you will return.

River and Rowing Museum, Mill Meadows, Henley on Thames, Oxfordshire, RG9 1BF
01491 415600
www.rrm.