The wife and I used the excuses of "researching the family tree" and a hobby known over there as "brass rubbing" to see the country and meet the real British people. I can't explain the awe and fear of holding a village's register of Births, Marriages, and Deaths in your hands when you know it's more than 400 years old.
10 Quid (a quid is 1 pound 6 pence) or two "fivers" (10 pounds) got us in most of the doors. The real tough ones were those operated under the direct supervision of the Victoria and Albert Museum (an organization with absolutely NO sense of humor about their rules).
Ted