Mike Laycock enjoys an insight into bygone rural Ryedale at Pickering's Beck Isle Museum

I've been at the Evening Press some 15 years, but it has taken a stint at our Malton office to open my eyes to all the attractions of Ryedale. And it was while I was launching our new campaign to tackle flooding in the district that I discovered the Beck Isle Museum at Pickering.

This museum, completely run by volunteers, is located alongside the town beck, an attractive and innocent-looking stream in most circumstances, but one which became something of a raging torrent after heavy rainfall and snowmelt in the North York Moors last year. The outside displays at the back of the museum, not to mention the education centre and toilets, were badly flooded and it took most of the season to sort out the resulting mess.

The 2000 season has, fortunately, passed by without a repeat of the disaster, and there is just time for people to pay a visit before Beck Isle closes down for the winter in November. And I reckon parents could do much worse than take their kids there if they have a free day over the half term.

The fine Regency building, where England's first Agricultural Institute was planned in the early 1800s, reflects the local life and customs over the past 200 years.

The first thing you see on entering is a huge and highly ornamental Columbian printing press, dating back to 1854, and apparently still in full working order.

Next, there's a display of photographs by a Pickering-born photographer called Sidney Smith, who is seen by some as a successor to Frank Meadow Sutcliffe of Whitby. And, blow me down, if there aren't reminders among the pictures of previous flooding disasters that have struck Ryedale in the past, along with remarkable scenes of huge snow drifts from savage winter blizzards.

Next is a series of shops and other businesses straight out of Pickering circa 1880, which bring the past to life.

There's the Victorian Station Hotel bar (the only thing missing for this thirsty hack was a nice pint of draught ale), a barber's shop, gent's outfitters, chemist shop complete with 116 individual drawers along the back wall, each one containing a different pill or potion, and a village shop (again, had my children been with me, I've no doubt they would have liked the chance to buy some olde-fashioned sweeties there). My daughter would also have liked the children's room, full of dolls dressed in hand-embroidered baby gowns and Victorian toys.

The costume room included a different coat representing a typically fashionable outer garment from every decade up to 1990. I was intrigued to know what would be the coat of 2000. At the back of the museum were more displays, on rural employment and activity, including a blacksmith's shop and ironmongers. This museum deserves a flood...of visitors.

FACT FILE

Beck Isle Museum of Rural Life, Bridge Street, Pickering.

Open daily from 10am to 5pm (last entry 4.30pm) until October 31.

Admission: £2.50 adults, £1.20 children, £2 pensioners.

Wheelchair access for disabled.

Further information: 01751 473653.