Rufford Old Hall

Rufford Old Hall is one of Lancashire's finest Tudor buildings, home to the Hesketh family for more than 600 years, and its Great Hall is hung with arms, armour and tapestries around a carved oak screen that has survived since the 1500s. A teenage William Shakespeare may have spent a few months here, and the volunteers will lay out the evidence. The Philip Ashcroft collection records 1930s Lancashire life, and the Victorian gardens run to squirrel-shaped topiary, an orchard and a woodland path beside the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. A mostly flat 2-mile circular trail starts and ends at the car park. Children can borrow balance bikes and dress up in the house; dogs on leads are welcome in the woods, paddocks, garden and courtyard but not indoors. Reviewers praise the enthusiastic guides, the Victorian tea-room and its homemade soup, and the cheap second-hand bookshop. One tip from regulars: the car park is small and can be full even in early spring, so arrive early; Rufford station is half a mile away.