The Cheshire Military Museum occupies Thomas Harrison’s former barracks inside the grounds of Chester Castle, and tells the story of the county’s soldiers across roughly three centuries.

Its core is the history of the Cheshire Regiment, raised in 1689 and long known as the 22nd Regiment of Foot, alongside the Cheshire Yeomanry, the Carabiniers and the other units that recruited from the county. The collection runs chronologically from the 17th century through the Napoleonic wars and the Victorian campaigns, into both world wars, and on to service within living memory.

What lifts it above the ordinary regimental museum is the personal material. Alongside the expected uniforms, medals, colours and weapons there are letters home, photographs, diaries and the ordinary kit that soldiers carried and wore out, and it is these rather than the cases of ordnance that convey what the soldiering was actually like. There are hands-on displays and reconstructed scenes for younger visitors, and the staff are generally happy to talk at length about any object you ask about.

Next door, the medieval chapel of St Mary de Castro in the Agricola Tower serves as the regimental chapel and is worth stepping into for its 13th-century wall paintings. Most people combine the museum with a walk round Harrison’s neoclassical castle buildings and the Grosvenor Museum a few doors along Grosvenor Street; together they make a comfortable couple of hours.

Official website: cheshiremilitarymuseum.org.uk