A great family day out in Suffolk

MEAL - Museum of East Anglian Life

Discover the history and natural world of East Anglia on our beautiful 75 acre site—explore nearly 3km of woodland and riverside nature trails. Learn about fascinating East Anglian crafts and traditional Gypsy culture, get steamed up with our powerful engines and meet our friendly animals including Major, our Suffolk Punch Horse and rare breeds of cattle and sheep. Discover 15 splendidly restored historic buildings and try some delicious food and local produce in the new museum bistro.

Latest news

Previously

The 13th Stowmarket Festival of Beer and Brewing

June 3rd, 2009

The Museum of East Anglian Life in association with CAMRA - the Campaign for Real Ale, kicks off its 13th Beer Festival on Thursday 18th June. The event which runs through to the Sunday afternoon of 21st June is perhaps the Museums most celebrated annual event. Visitors will have the chance to sample up to 60 East Anglian real ales and a number of ciders. The festival takes place in the beautiful setting of the museum's 14th century Abbots Hall barn.

The Good Life Festival

May 13th, 2009

Come and sample local produce, watch or join in with some fun and interesting demonstrations and find out about your local organisations. BBC Radio Suffolk will be here all day with their radio car. Learn how to produce your own food with the Suffolk Smallholders Association and the Young Farmers, learn about recycling on the Recycling Bus, have a go at belly dancing with Bellycise, try some local Aspall’s cider and much, much more!

May Day Celebrations

April 21st, 2009

Monday 4th May 2009

Why not join us to celebrate the coming of May and the start of springtime by joining in our Annual May Day Celebration.

Dancing round the Maypole, Morris dancers, traditional music and jig dolls are coming to the Museum of East Anglian Life on Bank Holiday Monday 4thMay 2009 !

All news stories...

Opening times

Normal Summer Opening Hours

22nd March–31st October 2009. Monday–Saturday 10:00–17:00; Sunday 11:00–17:00.

Winter Opening £2

The displays and historic buildings are closed to the public during the winter. Visitors are welcome to walk around the museum site and nature reserve for the reduced admission of two pounds. The museum site can be opened up for pre booked school parties and general groups of over ten people—normal admission prices then apply.

Get the full details on pricing.

Directions

The Museum is in Iliffe Way, opposite the ASDA supermarket in the centre of Stowmarket. It is signposted from the main A14 trunk road and the B1115 to Great Finborough. The railway station is a 10 minute walk and the bus stop 5 minutes. Car parking is available next to the Museum (Tip: the long stay car park on the right of Iliffe Way is cheaper than the one on the left). Pre-booked coaches can park on-site via a special coach entrance.

With Javascript enabled, we could show you a useful map provided by Google.

Heritage Lottery Fund

After a four year build up, and a huge amount of hard work our bid for development funds has been conditionally approved. We asked for £2.6m to develop Abbot's Hall, the walled garden, the stables, Crowe Street cottages, and replace the conservatory.

The HLF have granted us £1.771m on the condition that we raise the balance of £830k by March 2010. We are over half way there already having raised £520,000, however if we fail to reach our target the grant could be lost. We have therefore decided to launch the MEAL Appeal to invite donations to close the gap.

Read more about this exciting project.

When we were happy

"When Were We Happy" is an exciting new website created by the Museum of East Anglian Life that explores our rose tinted view of the past. Were people happier in the past, and if so, what can we learn from them?

When Were We Happy

Key stage learning

The Museum is a wonderful educational resource set in the magnificent Suffolk countryside on a large, safe, open air site. We have a wide and interesting collection that includes entire buildings such as Alton Watermill, which is run twice a day, and many animals, including rare breeds.

Read more in the Learning section of the website.

Visitor photos of the Museum

Share your photographs from your visit with everyone by adding them to our Flickr group.

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