Dance to the music of time; travel

The O'Brien family visits the World of Mechanical Music in Gloucestersh ire

The venue

The World of Mechanical Music is a tiny museum, a single, genteel room crammed with apparently sombre old instruments. But the space is soon filled with an astonishing variety of sounds as the guide brings each object to life - barrel organ, musical box, polyphon, automaton, pianola ... This is an eccentric extended family of magnificent music machines.

The collection belongs to Keith Harding and Cliff Burnett, both horologists. Keith is Europe's leading authority on cylinder- and disc-playing musical boxes.

The tour traces the development of mechanical music from 18th-century cylinder boxes to a magnificently mellow Thirties EMG hand-made gramophone. The most prized piece is a Steinway concert piano with a Welte reproducing mechanism that plays exact performances.

The automata are equally entertaining - a lion loses his head to a lion tamer, Joey the clown scrapes a bow across his violin. The collection of clocks is displayed in a small annexe which is currently being redecorated.

The visitors

Sarah O'Brien, a ceramics specialist with Sotheby's, and her husband, Charlie, head of 19th-century paintings at Bonham's, took their children, Alice, eight, and George, six.

Sarah: There was a really good combination of attractive objects, good music, interesting history and an entertaining guide. I was concerned that Alice and George would get bored being talked to by a guide in one small room, but they loved it.

The music included old favourites like "Rule Britannia", the "Ride of the Valkyries" and tunes by Scott Joplin. I liked the way each instrument was put in its historical context: how many months' salary it would cost to buy, and what room it may have been played in, and when. It was the social history that maintained my interest; the mechanical history lost me. I would have liked a small guide book explaining the basics of how things worked because there was so much to take in.

Charlie: The museum is run by genuine enthusiasts. I was glad the guide showed us the instruments chronologically to give a sense of development from the 18th century to the present.

The Cafe Orchestrian was in its original condition, unrestored and unpolished; just as it would have been sitting in the cafe with people bumping into it, pouring beer and wine over it.

The Steinway concert piano impressed me most. To be able to sit and hear a concert performance given by the Polish composer Paderewski, long dead, was a real treat. It was quite eerie to see the keys moving on their own, but fascinating to watch.

Alice: It was a very small museum but there was lots to see. Most of all I liked the musical boxes. My favourite was a lovely one Queen Victoria gave to an Indian maharaja. It was really big with a huge cylinder in it, lots of shining bells and a singing bird sitting in a sort of forest.

George: The tour was just the right length. I didn't get bored but I did sit down near the end. I understood what the man was saying some of the time, not always, but I enjoyed it. Some of the music made me want to dance. I knew the William Tell overture because we sing it at home when we are in a hurry to get to school.

I liked the little musical snuff box most of all, with the singing bird in it. When the music stopped he had to go back in really quickly before the lid snapped down.

The deal

Keith Harding's World of Mechanical Music, The Oak House, High Street, Northleach, Gloucestershire (01451 860181). Northleach is just off the A40, between Oxford and Cheltenham.

Access: There is a small car park behind the museum. Entrance to the museum is through the shop. Disabled access.

Opening times: Daily 10am-6pm, closed Christmas Day. Last tour 5pm. Private groups of more than 10 people can make evening appointments.

Admission: Adults, pounds 5; OAPs and students, pounds 4; children, pounds 2.50; family ticket, pounds 12.50.

Shop: Excellent selection of gifts: antique clocks and musical boxes, contemporary automata, cuckoo clocks, brain-teasers.

Toilets: The museum toilets show signs of age; use the public toilets in main square.

Catherine Stebbings