Warrington's main cultural asset is the Warrington Museum and Art Gallery, one of the oldest municipal museums in the country, housing 200,000 artefacts including dinosaur fossils, Egyptian antiquities, and finds from the Roman settlement at Wilderspool. The imposing Victorian building on Bold Street is worth visiting for the architecture alone.
A few kilometres south, Walton Hall and Gardens provides a green escape with formal gardens, a heritage centre, and a small children's zoo set around an island mansion. For medieval history, Norton Priory in nearby Runcorn is one of the most excavated monastic sites in Europe, with museum, ruins, and woodland gardens. Rugby league fans will want to catch a Warrington Wolves match at the Halliwell Jones Stadium when the season is running.