Hotels near the Museum of Lakeland Life

Winner - back in 1973 - of the first ever Museum of the Year award, Kendal's Museum of Lakeland Life depicts how local people have lived over the last 300 years.

Run by the Lakeland Arts Trust, the museum gives visitors the human story behind the magnificent landscape, from Wordsworth and John Ruskin to the hard-grafting farmers and miners who have eked their livelihood from the land.

Visitors can walk through an Edwardian street scene and see how food was prepared in the 18th-century kitchen. A rolling programme of temporary exhibitions includes many inspired by the museum's extensive costume collection.

The museum also houses a tribute to author Arthur Ransome, whose life-long love affair with the Lake District brought him literary success through his Swallows and Amazons books. The Arthur Ransome room is a reconstruction of the writer's study, complete with his very own typewriter and pipe, as well as copies of his sketch book where you can see the stories come to life.