Henley In Arden Heritage Centre

The Henley-​in-​Arden Heritage centre is right next to the famous Henley Ice Cream Parlour and I would recommend a visit to this place before even start checking somewhere else! This wonderful timber-​tudor house open to the public since 1996 as a museum that preserves the history of this wonderful market city from Norman Conquest to the present days.
The Joseph Hardy House is a construction dated from 1345, the oldest in the city, and in its ground floor is possible to understand since the medieval Henley period when it’s explained the origin of the city, with replica of the Beaudesert castle, to the visit in the courtyard where you can understand how was life in Henley during the World War II period.
Outside the house it’s possible to experience how is life in the famous Anderson bomb shelter.
On the first floor, it’s a space to find out a bit more about Henley Ice Cream history and William James, the sponsor of locomotive engineer George Stephenson. as well as how was the trade and businesses in early years in this city!
The admission to this wonderful Heritage Centre is free but i do recommend leaving them some donation for all fabulous work done in this place. It was just a pity I didn’t take photo of the house’s façade because there was having some work done outside.

While in Henley-​in-​Arden recently my daughter and I popped into the Heritage Centre located on the beautifully quaint High Street.
It’s a beautiful old black and white timbered building which looks wonderful from the outside, I knew it housed historic pieces telling the story of Henley-​in-​Arden from as long ago as the Norman conquest but to be honest it didn’t look big enough.
Actually once inside I was surprised at how large the rooms are, the Heritage Centre is spread over two floors with each floor having three main exhibition rooms.
My favourite was the Home Life room on the first floor which contained clothing and toys from the long ago era of Henley-​in-​Arden. Having an interest in fashion I found this really interesting to see how clothes changed over the years, and also looking at how basic the toys were it made me realise just how times have changed. Mind you, I wouldn’t fancy using their ‘labour saving’ kitchen gadgets as they all looked like hard work!
My daughter liked the Medieval Henley room which contained items from this particular period in history such as warfare memorabilia, cooking items and other interesting objects of the time.
I like the fact that all the exhibits are nicely marked with a short description of what each item was used for, the descriptions were just enough information for casual visitors like us but was enough to give us a starting point if something particularly interested us.
In all honesty every room holds something of interest and the variety of the exhibitions meant we enjoyed our hour long stroll through the centre. It’s free to get in which is a bonus, although donations are welcomed.
Disabled access isn’t ideal as wheelchair users cannot get to see the first floor because there is no lift of any type, however disabled visitors can watch a virtual tour on the ground floor. I’m not sure how this works but it’s a nice idea so that no one misses out on anything they want to see.