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Last weekend we climbed the Malvern Hills, drank the Queen’s favourite water from a holy well and joined other families, their dogs and their picnics, on a ridge with 360 degree views across to the Chilterns in one direction and Wales in the other. Riffs of funfair music drifted up the hill from the Three Counties Showground below. It reminded me how many glorious outings cost nothing.

The Malvern outing was magic. Victorian gas lights line some of the steep roads into the hills and, bizarrely, appear in the woodland at one point. This is said to have inspired the light in CS Lewis’ 'Narnia' books. So the game is to guess which of the lights became his muse. My vote goes to that in the woods between Holywell Road and the Wells Road. Countless springs bubble out of the hillside, some of them enclosed by wells. The Holy Well at Malvern Wells is regarded as one of the ‘best-dressed wells’ being set in a roomy shrine where visitors leave flowers, poems and letters of thanks and mourning.

The whole experience reminded me how much you can do for nothing this summer. And here are some of my suggestions for other free summer outings.

LONDON has got its own excellent site listing of free events for everyone including families. The ones which caught my eye included Spitalfields City Farm (just down the road from The Times office and I’d never noticed it, I’m ashamed to say) and WOLDwrite’s free film training - OK this is not until October but what an opportunity for teens.

Since the government did away with entry charge to museums like the V&A, visitor numbers have soared. All the museums in Exhibition Road offer great days out – but there are other equally alluring museums in the capital.

LIVERPOOL

Tate Liverpool in Calderstones Park is south of the centre and, with a car, can be combined with visits to Paul McCartney and John Lennon’s childhood homes. Liverpool World Museum includes a planetarium as well as a mass of hands-on fun for kids and more serious stuff for serious people.

MIDLANDS

Coventry Transport Museum, has the biggest collection of English road vehicles in the world from bikes to lorries and plenty of luscious sports cars from an age before carbon emission guilt. East Midlands Aeropark has some vintage aircraft on display plus a chance to plane spot on East Midlands Airport. Bizarrely one of the airport’s parking companies has come up with an excellent site about local attractions which includes some free days out.

DERBY is not the most glamorous city in the country but does offer Pickfords House Museum which has been restored to look as if Joseph Pickford, the man who owned it in the late eighteenth century, is still living there (albeit with a 1940s air raid shelter in the basement). The Industrial Museum in a sense takes up history when Pickfords leaves it: this is a birthplace of the industrial revolution and home to full-size RollsRoyce aero engine. Train enthusiasts can climb aboard a steam train cabin. The Central Museum is in easy walking distance.

NORTH EAST

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