Nick Ahad: Revisiting childhood trips may hold some pleasant surprises

It seemed like once a month my classmates and I from St Anne's school in Keighley would be shepherded up the road to the former mansion to look at the exhibits and learn about museums.

From memory, there were a lot of scary-looking stuffed birds, some fossils and an alligator (I may have imagined the last of those).

Which is probably why I haven't been back since my teenage years.

Then last week I had a blast from the past when I went to the National Media Museum.

In my professional capacity, I have been to the Bradford venue regularly in recent years, but my most memorable visit was when

I was a kid, again a St Anne's School trip.

The class had been taken to the National Museum of Photography Film and Television as it was then, where we visited not the exhibits, but the amazing Imax cinema.

I remember being stunned, dumbfounded by the huge screen in front of us, which that day was showing a documentary about a space station.

I was also deeply excited that John Bailey, who I was sitting next to and who seemed to be always at my side when I got into trouble at primary school, said he felt like jumping into the screen (I was 11 and had a wild imagination – I really thought he was going to do it).

Those memories came flooding back when I was invited to the screening at the Imax of the new Christopher Nolan movie Inception.

Quite apart from the movie being something special, watching it on the Imax reminded me of the excitement I felt when I first experienced the screen.

It really is quite an impressive facility to have on our doorsteps, yet, like me and Cliffe Castle, for many it is in the box

marked "childhood things" – simply because that is when our strongest memories and first experiences of these places occur.

When I told the features editor that the Imax screen in Bradford now regularly shows Hollywood movies, she was surprised – her memory is of seeing a film of a rollercoaster ride when she visited the museum, also on a school trip.

Obviously it is deeply important that schoolchildren today are introduced to the multitude of cultural gems we boast here in Yorkshire.

The idea is that by introducing us to places like the National Media Museum when we are children, then it will instil a love of culture and we will continue to return as adults.

I've discovered, however, that the reverse may be true.

Given my recent experiences at the Imax, I highly recommend dusting off the box of childhood memories and maybe revisiting the scenes of some of those schoolday trips.

You could be in for a pleasant surprise.