The Rifleman's Museum — Attraction in Winchester

I temporarily pulled over into the car park for 25 minutes to get out of the stand still traffic to allow me to change my disabled child’s nappy in the car and make an urgent adjustment to his feeding tube. I also needed to check our navigation as the sat nav was telling me I would not be able to reach our destination by car from where I was. The dentist we were trying to reach was apparently behind the museum on a footpath, and the satnav was confusing us and told us we were at our destination. I used a disabled bay, as we have a blue badge for our son, which we correctly displayed in the window alongside the clock even though we were only there temporarily. It was pouring with rain and I am not local so did not know the area and was very lost trying to get him to his specialist dentist appointment. The disabled bays were clearly marked, and we could not see any other signs nearby that indicated we were not allowed to park there. We did our best to look, as we are not to sort of people that try to abuse the use of a car park. If there was a sign, we must have missed it, similarly to the staff failing to see our clearly displayed blue badge, approximately 4 metres from where they stood, and also failing to see that we were trying to deal with an urgent medical situation, which was blatantly obvious. There was a large spillage in the car from his feeding tube coming loose and leaking, so I needed to dash into the cafe next door to ask for some napkins, wipe him down and wash my hands so I could reattach the tubing. When I came back to the car a very rude man with grey hair was glaring at me with his arms folded from the doorway to the museum and was shaking his head and muttering at us. He was wearing the museum uniform. I opened the car door to ask him if all was ok and he began immediately shouting at me from the doorway without even asking me why I might have needed to pull over into the car park. I apologised and said I would only be a moment. He asked me if I had visited the museum and I said no, but before I could finish speaking and explaining the situation he continued to just rudely shout over me. I said we were sorry and that there is also a nicer way to let us know we couldn’t park there. He continued to just shout over me and even after I closed the door and my husband began to move the car away. This is when I took his photo, which gives me the time stamp for how long we were there, despite the museum suggesting we parked there for an hour and went off on our jollies. Very rude and very unfriendly staff; especially considering the car park was otherwise EMPTY and I was not preventing others from parking and visiting the museum. I sincerely hope he doesn’t ever have a disabled child to care for, or finds himself needing to do anything similar in an emergency situation. It’s really not hard to show some kindness in this world. He could easily have asked us if we were ok, or at the very least helped us with directions. Horrible vile man. This is the sort of place my son would have loved visiting but we will definitely not be coming back as customers. This is a real shame as we were excited to see the museum when we pulled in and both agreed we would like to visit. Also, as a side note to the horrid man, it’s majorly creepy to intensely stare at someone changing a disabled child in their car. I don’t know how long he had been there for before I...

The Riflemans Museum, located in the Peninsula Barracks in Winchester, is a fantastic little museum spread across two floors, complete with a stair lift for accessibility. We were amazed by the vast number of exhibits on display. The staff were very welcoming and informative, enhancing our experience. A standout feature is the extensive display dedicated to the Battle of Waterloo. This enormous display case, which is truly astonishing in scale, features approximately 20,000 soldiers and 9,000 horses. While the overall presentation is impressive, a closer look reveals countless intricate details and smaller scenes within the larger tableau. Additionally, a narrated light show occurs every 10 minutes, providing valuable insights into the diorama and the battle it represents. If you're a fan of the Sharpe novels, this museum is a must-visit. There is also a stunning collection of medals, which serve as a remarkable testament to military history. As someone joked, “blokes don’t do bling.” Overall, the museum is fascinating and set in a beautiful area. I would recommend it to anyone visiting Winchester, and it’s definitely worth the trip for anyone with an interest in the...

We visited this museum on Saturday afternoon, expecting to go on to the Gurkha museum and others in the complex. We actually spent 3 hours in the RGJ Museum and that was with skimming over the post WW1 sections. What an amazing museum, so well done and so much to see and read. The dioramas were excellent, particularly the Waterloo one which was huge and gave a real scale of the conflict as well as some lovely personal details. For me the most interesting section was the Victorian era colonial wars with minor conflicts seemingly all over the globe, one after the other. A fabulous museum and worth visiting Winchester...