The sort of place school trips drag kids round as a tangible educational tool, this medieval village stirs memories of days past bored to tears during a nigh-on practical history lesson while you wondered why everything smelt like pig excrement. Thankfully, if you're lucky you can avoid the regimented tours and the like as out of regular hours it seems possible to wander around undisturbed on your own. And without a guide popping the village's time machine qualities, it's infinitely more fun. Duck inside the basic period huts and outhouses, study an array of frightening medieval tools, even watch the small populations of farm animals kept onsite or try out the wooden stocks. Either way, next to the picturesque Cosmeston Lakes & Country Park, it's a nice countryside escape hardly any distance out of Penarth. And so long as you don't subject them to a snooze-inducing lecture, it's good place for anybody with kids to take the inquisitive little blighters, too. read more