The Oxfordshire Museum

Woodstock

The county museum, hiding in plain sight

The Oxfordshire Museum lives inside Fletcher's House, a handsome townhouse just off Park Street in the middle of Woodstock, a couple of minutes' walk from the gates of Blenheim Palace. It is Oxfordshire's free county museum, run by the county council, and entry costs nothing beyond whatever you choose to drop in the donation box. That combination, a proper museum with no ticket and no pressure, is exactly why we send guests here. You can go in for a quick look and leave when you feel like it, which is a rare and lovely thing on a day out.

We tend to fold it into a full day in Woodstock rather than treat it as a destination in its own right. The town is small, walkable and genuinely pretty, and the museum, the pubs and the palace all sit within a few hundred yards of each other. A morning at the museum, lunch somewhere on the high street, then an afternoon on the grounds at Blenheim makes for one of the easiest days out we point people towards. From the cottage the drive over to Woodstock takes around twenty minutes.

What's inside

Spread across a set of galleries, the collections walk you through the county's story from the Jurassic period onward. There is local archaeology, geology, wildlife and social history, alongside a programme of changing exhibitions that rotate through the year, often drawing on Oxfordshire artists or some particular thread of county life. It is thoughtfully done rather than flashy, the sort of place where you find yourself actually reading the labels rather than drifting past them. It is manageable in size too, which we think is part of the appeal: you can see the highlights in under an hour, or linger longer if something catches you. Here is roughly what you can expect on a visit:

• The dinosaur gardenBehind the house, a set of Megalosaurus footprints, lifted from a limestone quarry near Ardley, sits out in a walled garden planted with Jurassic-era species. Children tend to be transfixed, and it is the thing everyone remembers.
• The galleriesArchaeology, geology, wildlife and the landscape and people of Oxfordshire, laid out across several rooms that carry you from the county's deep past through to more recent centuries.
• Changing exhibitionsA rolling programme of temporary shows, so there is usually something new even if you have been before. Worth a quick check of the museum's own site before you set off.
• The garden caféA café serving hot drinks, cakes and light bites, with the walled garden to sit in when the weather plays along. A gentle way to round off a visit.

A day out in Woodstock

The museum works best as one stop among several. Because it is free and right in the centre, it slots neatly into a Woodstock morning, and you can shape the rest of the day around it. Our usual suggestion is to start here while everyone is fresh, wander the high street and its independent shops, then walk the five minutes to the palace gates. Parking in Woodstock can be tight at busy times, so we tend to nudge guests towards an earlier start, which also leaves the whole afternoon free for Blenheim. For where to eat and what else to see, our guide to Woodstock covers the town in more detail, and Blenheim Palace sits right next door for the afternoon.

Rainy days and easy afternoons

When the weather turns, this is one of the first places we mention. It is mostly indoors, it costs nothing, and an hour here is never wasted. If you would rather pair it with a proper lunch, The Killingworth Castle is a short hop away and one of the better pubs in the area. Opening days and current exhibitions do shift through the year, so it is always worth a look at the official listing before you go.

“It's the dinosaur footprints that get everyone. Genuinely impressive, completely free, and right next door to Blenheim. Hard to beat on a rainy afternoon.”

Visit the official site →

Also nearby

• Banbury Museum · Museum · Banbury
• Deddington Castle · Castle · nearby
• Woodstock · Town guide