My favourite museum is Ryedale Folk Museum.
Run nearly entirely by volunteers, it’s a rare breed smallholding, a memorial to past generations, and a wild flower conservation project, as well as a museum.

The moorland village is wonderful in itself, with old houses and sheep grazing (some villagers still own rights to turn sheep out on the verges).

But the museum is brilliant. You can walk round village shops from different eras, peep in 19th–17th century cottages, play a game of Merrills in a manor house, beware witchcraft, walk inside an Edwardian photographic studio, and look in tractors and gypsy wagons. The terrifying Iron Age roundhouse has skulls! There is something for everyone. But here are a few reasons why I love this museum.

It focuses on the Ryedale people, so that by learning about their jobs, worries, superstitions, daily life and education, you get an insight into the history.

Seeking a new life  The museum also follows people who emigrated to Canada. Farmhands losing jobs, younger sons of farmers, families hoping for better lives, and a poet who inspired others to follow, all left. A moving film has been made by sixth-form students, starring local primary children.