The red telephone boxes
The National Telephone Kiosk Collection, every design from the 1920s to the present day, many still live on working exchanges.
Every building here was taken apart beam by beam somewhere else and put back together on this meadow outside Bromsgrove. The story starts in 1962, when a fifteenth-century timber-framed merchant's house in the town centre was about to be demolished; locals dismantled it instead, and from that rescue grew England's first open-air museum, founded in 1963 and opened in 1967. Today more than thirty relocated buildings stand scattered among trees and fields, spanning seven centuries of Midlands life. The variety is what makes the walk round fun: the Danzey Green post windmill still turns and grinds on milling days, a 1946 steel prefab built for a post-war Birmingham family sits fully furnished down to the radio and kitchen tins, an 1891 Victorian 'tin tabernacle' church is the kind that was once sold from a catalogue, there is an 1822 roadside toll house and the timber roof of Worcester Cathedral's guest hall, built in 1330. Oddest of all is the National Telephone Kiosk Collection: a long line of boxes in every GPO and BT design from the 1920s to the present day, many still wired to working exchanges so you hear a genuine dial tone. Children love this corner more than any medieval house. It is small and quiet next to the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley, and that is a strength rather than a flaw: no queues, no crowds, mostly level grass paths that take a pushchair, a playground, a miniature railway on selected days (GBP 1 a ride) and a small tea room for sandwiches, soup and cakes (nothing obviously halal, so bring food or eat in Bromsgrove). Two to three hours is plenty. The honest verdict: without children or a real interest in old architecture, it can feel like a field with some old houses in it. Getting there from Birmingham is easy: trains from New Street reach Bromsgrove in about 20-25 minutes, then a 20-minute walk or the short 145 bus ride from the station, or drive 35-40 minutes via the M5 (junction 4 or 5) to the free on-site car park. Watch the opening days: outside school holidays it opens only on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, stretching to Wednesday-Sunday in the holidays, closing at 15:00 from late October and, after the December event weekends, shutting altogether for several weeks over midwinter, so check the calendar before you drive out.
The National Telephone Kiosk Collection, every design from the 1920s to the present day, many still live on working exchanges.
A post-war steel house built for a Birmingham family, furnished exactly as it was lived in.
A working timber post mill that turns and grinds on milling days, set in open meadow that suits children and pushchairs.
Stoke Heath, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire B60 4JR
If you are picking one, the Black Country Living Museum is bigger and livelier, with costumed staff, trams and a whole old street, and easily fills a day. Avoncroft is smaller, quieter and cheaper, done in half a day, and suits a relaxed outing with young children or a visit you are making to Bromsgrove anyway; do not try both in one day.
Mostly no: it is an open-air site on grass that turns to mud, closes at 15:00 from late October and then shuts for several weeks over midwinter. The exception is the seasonal event days in December. April to October is the time, and school holiday weeks are best because it opens five days a week instead of three.