'We visited a museum dedicated to my favourite author and it was perfect'

It's a little town in North Yorkshire known to be the setting for the popular TV show, film - and my favourite book series, ‘All Creatures Great and Small’.

Thirsk is considered one of the best places to visit in the region, and with my dad planning to join me I thought it would be a good opportunity to visit The World of James Herriot. It was a chance for a trip down memory lane for both of us, as the author holds a special place in both of our lives.

As many children do, I really wanted to become a vet and after having five pet hamsters I was animal obsessed. But alas it was not meant to be.

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But long before giving up my dream, just as many supportive parents do, my dad bought me the James Herriot books to inspire me to pursue it. However, I decided it was not the job for me when a local vet told me how the career is mostly putting animals to sleep.

For my dad, it has always been one of his favourite book collections and he fondly recalls reading them at university. However, he has not watched the new TV series and it had been a while since he read the books, so walking into the museum we weren't sure what to expect.

After paying for two adult tickets, which were £8.50 each, we made our way inside the attraction and were immediately transported back in time to what it would have been like in the 1950s. Despite it not being a scary museum, we did get a little scare when we came face-to-face with a life-size cardboard figure of James Harriot at the reception window.

As we made our way through the house we took in the sights of the small living room, reception waiting room, the drug storeroom (which was always left unlocked, in those days) and the small surgery where operations took place and finally the kitchen.

After the house tour, the next area to look around was an old barn, where a five-minute documentary played that explained more about who the writer of the books was, and revealed his true name as James Alfred Wright. It explained that he was mostly known as Alfred and how he could not use his real name in his books as it was considered as advertising, according to the Royal Veterinary College.

To keep his clients and family members names private, he also changed their names in the books. But the situations he wrote about was based on what he experienced or was told about by other vets.

The documentary was short, sweet and very informative as it explored James’ life and how he chose his pen name, which came from a Scottish player called Jim Herriot. But I think my dad’s favourite part was when our hometown of Sunderland was mentioned and how James was a lifelong fan - and currently has a suite named after him at the Stadium of Light.

The next building on the tour was a studio on the first floor, where original scenes from the TV show was based. It was interesting to see how the old traditional way of how a set used to be like before advanced technology.

On the top, there were several rooms to explore which featured an interactive section to see if you could live up to become a vet as well as comparing the different equipment which is and isn’t used today.

Overall, we were pleasantly surprised how much fun you could have in a museum based on animals and a TV show. As we weren’t pressured time-wise due to us going around midday during the week, we were able to walk around leisurely and take it all in but also have a laugh by trying the TV props or talk about the medical equipment still used by vets today.

It was a brilliant place to visit and for the price of a little more than £15, I think it is definitely worth a visit if you are in Thirsk or the surrounding areas. One thing it definitely confirmed, however, is I do not think I could do a vet's job.

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