Beat the wet weather with a trip from Banbury to the fascinating Ashmolean Museum in Oxford

Fortunately Oxford is a short train, car or bus trip down the road and there are all sorts of attractions to enjoy in the city.

Last week’s visit was to the Ashmolean Museum – home to a vast array of art and archeology exhibits and a super Rooftop Restaurant where you can treat yourself and the family to a delicious lunch or tea.

The restaurant has menus for afternoon tea (including a vegan menu), lunch, a sharing board summer list, a children’s menu and kids’ afternoon tea. There is also a cafe on the ground floor.

Visitors can eat inside or, when it’s not raining, sit outside at tables on the rooftop terrace, enjoying the view across the roofs of Oxford and enjoying table service delivering delicious food from Head Chef Steven Brooks. Opening hours have been extended until 6pm to allow guests more time to enjoy the newly planted open-air terrace throughout the summer.

Highlights of the Ashmolean's collections include drawings by Michelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci; paintings by Picasso, Pittoni, Uccello, van Dyck, Rubens, Cézanne, Constable, Titian, Claude Lorrain, Samuel Palmer and John Singer Sargent. There are watercolours and paintings by J M W Turner.

Items of particular interest are The Messiah Stradivarius, a violin made by Antonio Stradivari, Arab ceremonial dress owned by Lawrence of Arabia, a death mask of Oliver Cromwell, the Crondall hoard – a rare set of Anglo-Saxon gold coins discovered in 1828 - over 30 pieces of Late Roman gold glass roundels from the Catacombs of Rome (the third largest collection after the Vatican and British Museum), an extensive collection of antiquities from Prehistoric Egypt and the lantern that Gunpowder Plot conspirator Guy Fawkes carried in 1605.

Over four floors parents and their offspring will enjoy huge collections of fascinating archaeological specimens and fine art. It has one of the best collections of Pre-Raphaelite paintings, majolica pottery,and English silver. The archaeology department has an excellent collection of Greek and Minoan pottery. The department also has an extensive collection of antiquities from Ancient Egypt.

For more details see https://www.ashmolean.org