The Museum of Science and Industry Manchester

I thought it would be good to do a little review of some of the days out we have done incase anyone is thinking of going and wonders what they are like.

I recently took my eldest son for a special mummy and son day out and we took the train to Manchester and visited the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) and the Manchester Museum and we had an absolutely brilliant day.

What I would say though is that both museums were quite far apart and with a three year old it was definitely to far to walk, they were also quite far from the train station so I spent quite a bit of money on taxis.

This was a fantastic museum with a range of exhibits covering air and space, the industrial revolution and mills, engines and locomotives and more. I would say my son was a little young at just under 4 to be able to fully understand or take part and so maybe 6 would be a better age.

However, saying that he absolutely LOVED mummy telling him all about the industrial revolution, our history of textile manufacturing, how children used to work in the mills, how they made the cotton and how the canals were used to transport goods. His little face was absolutely captivated and I could see his brain was like a sponge soaking it all in. It is the most he has listened to me in months and I actually had to hold back a couple of tears as it was such a special and proud moment teaching him and seeing the admiration in his face as he said “how do you know all this mummy”, I answered “because Grandma and Grandpa brought mummy to museums just like this and I listened and learnt all about it”. My heart could have burst.

The Air and Space hanger which is on the opposite side of the road was OK but in comparison to Cosford Museum which is specifically focuses on planes it wasn’t great and we were round it in fifteen minutes.

There was a 3D cinema which had a film about space and the solar system which I had bigged up to him but there was a height restriction of 1.1M and so he was too small which was a shame.

The best part of the museum by far was the engines and trains and we spent at least an hour looking at everything and discussing how it worked. There was a live role play presentation about one of the trains and you could go and look inside some of the old steam trains. I think the museum is worth visiting for this part alone.

There was a great interactive exhibit in the main building where you could take a selfie on a computer and it would appear on one of the screens in the sculpture above you, my little boy thought this was really cool.

The setting is brilliant with the museum located in the old working dock buildings and the staff were so friendly and helpful.
Although old buildings lifts and ramps had been fitted allowing easy access for prams and wheel chairs. The cafe was nice but the toilets were down several flights of stairs in the main building and I couldn’t find any others so that was a bit of a pain. There is however a disabled toilet which requires key acres on the top floor near the shop.