Mansfield Museum has held off competition from five other UK attractions to be confirmed as the winner of the Guardian Family Friendly Award 2011.

The Nottinghamshire museum has been labelled as a "surprise" winner of the award, which aims to recognise attractions that are the most welcoming to families and children.

Other shortlisted sites were the Corinium Museum in Cirencester; the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent; and Kilmartin House Musuem in Argyll, Scotland.

London's Horniman Museum and Abbey House Museum, Leeds, were also in the running to be named as the Guardian Family Friendly Award winner for 2011.

Kids in Museums director Dea Birkett said: "From a Guinea Pig trail to turning the museum into an old fashioned department store stocked with their collection of household goods, they've proved you don't need an architecturally astonishing building or Egyptian mummies to entice and entrance families."

Image: Nadia and Aidan Lesingham from one of the judging families at Mansfield Museum