I’ve been to a few – shall we say “different” museums – in the UK, US and in France. Once you get a taste for such collections of off-beat or unusual memorabilia, it’s hard to resist paying the modest entry fee and going in.

My all-time favourite has to be the National Lawnmower Museum in Southport, on the Sefton coast in Lancashire. Founded by an engineering enthusiast it showcases, in a modest space over a hardware shop, a large collection of lawnmowers and grasscutters. The oldest lawnmower is there, as is the sit-on motorised one, gifted to the Prince of Wales on his marriage to Diana.

Contributors include various celebrities and, I’m amused and rather pleased to say, dear husband, who donated the ancient Flymo we’d had since the 1970s.

Last year we discovered the Doors Museum in Pezenas, in the south of France – old wooden doors and lots of iron keys, hinges and bolts.  It was like an Aladdin’s Cave.

In the US this year with family, we visited the Antique Tow Truck Museum in Chattanooga….

……and the excellent Fire Museum in Memphis, which has plenty of hands-on activities for grandchildren and proved to be a very educational visit for us all.