American Museum & Gardens — Attraction in Claverton

I visited in October 2021 and the ongoing building work did not impact my visit in the slightest. I see that the museum keep abreast of all their reviews, which I admire and I am loath to be critical of any enterprise in these difficult times but I do have some observations; on the positive side, the gardens are delightful, the view is stunning - what a wonderful location! Having visted many gardens in the UK it was a surprise to see some very unusual and visually interesting planting but it was a shame that there was no apparent labelling, and I was by no means alone in my curiosity as to what some of the plants are.

Moving to the museum itself, I am admiring of the concept of showcasing Eastern American cultural art from diverse origins but in my personal opinion, with the museum established in the early 1960's, I was given the impression that little had changed since the inception; this might be an odd remark given the antiquity of the exhibits, but being a museum buff of many years I have seen many evolve from sheds full of junk into newly lit, traffic-flow analysed business models. It would appear that this museum has yet to be able to benefit from grants/ consultants at this point. I did enjoy my visit but the building sadly suffers from restricted space and I felt could do with some better direction indicators for visitors, I went the wrong way on the lower floors and was slightly confused on the upper ones. I did learn some things but my parting thought was that this small museum was sadly superficial on its subject matter though this is understandable with such a vast age and breadth of history in such a relatively small location.

For me personally I would have liked to see an expanded timeline of the Civil War and some sort of overview of the diversity of the indigenous Indian nations. Lack of space again, I guess. The other subject touched on all too briefly for me was the history of the treaties and conflicts which expanded the United States. Perhaps future funding will allow for some videos, which it did appear that there might be space for and which other, even very small museums have used to great effect to bring the subject to life. As a result of my visit I have already viewed some documentaries on YouTube,so thank you for the inspiration to learn, at least. I guess at the end of the day one wouldn't expect a museum of Britain to be found in another country, so I am grateful for what I have learned without having to travel thousands of miles!

My apologies to the team for being critical, I do wish the museum success. Thank you for my visit and good...

This is an absolutely spectacular and truly special museum situated on the outskirts of Bath which is dedicated to American History and Culture. This museum is truly unique and is one of its kind in the UK that goes into American Culture and History and there is some informative, fascinating and intriguing displays about the origins of America with the Native Americans and the Invasion of the European Settlers and there are a number of period rooms you can walk into and these particularly stand out due to the fact that you can see the British and European influences on American Culture over the centuries. The period rooms that stand out is Conkey's Tavern, New Orleans Bedroom and Deer Park Parlor due to their wonderful and Delightful British, European and French period influences and features. There are a number of other fascinating galleries to see such as The Textiles Room where you can see beautiful quilits in a wonderful collection which are full of vibrant and dazzling colours and its the finest collection of quilts outside of America without a doubt and there is the Shaker Collection which has a wonderful collection of Tables and Chairs and the Native American Collection with a brilliant headdress, basket hat and Bandolier Bags to see and all of these are in wonderful condition and there is a great Map collection housing some very interesting maps of America to see. There is the Folk Art Collection where you can see lovely beautiful collection of sculptures and paintings and they are spectacular. The Gardens themselves are truly spectacular with amazing views of the surrounding area and also spectacular flower displays and in the Gardens you can see the wonderful Mount Vernon Garden and the New American Garden where you can see great Paterre Garden and amazing flowers and grasses and these have a great North American influence to them and there are head sculptures from all the great American figureheads of the past. In the gardens you can see a beautiful Conestoga Wagon which is in amazing condition and there is some great information. Another great exhibition at the Museum is The Infinity and Beyond exhibition all the history of American exploration in history which is very interesting to see and read about. There is a cafe selling a great range of food and drink at reasonable prices and also there is a great gift shop selling a wonderful range of souvenirs at reasonable prices. Overall this is a throughly and truly amazing, outstanding and stunning place to visit and makes for a refreshing day out. Definitely well worth a visit whilst in...

Visited the Enchanted Festival of Light for the second year and overall felt a bit let down.

Whilst some of the lights were very lovely to see and we did enjoy it, we felt very let down by this event compared to last year as the marketing promised it would be a “bigger and better” scenario.

The trail itself felt a similar length, if not shorter, than last year and was a bit samey - despite us paying more. Although the log cabin was a nice and welcoming touch the food and drink were badly priced (£9 for a mulled wine which would have come from a pre-made bottle) which left us feeling a bit miffed.

In its first year there were mulled wine stations, food stations and even a little cocktail van dotted along the trail which made us linger more in the cold weather and enjoy a more leisurely stroll and a sit down amongst the lights.

The shop was tiny and just thrown on at the end, whereas last year it was in the lovely building near the fountain.

We expected more volume and variety of lights, some stop off points throughout the trail and just a bit more going on this year. But in reality all that happened was we payed more to enter, more for food and drink, more for parking (which we needn’t have as no one checked we had paid for parking) and it looks like judging by their posters that in 2024 costs will be going up again.

It wasn’t horrendous and it is a lovely place to walk around, but it certainly didn’t live up to what we expected from the marketing material being pushed out and we felt a bit short changed this...