Nottingham Industrial Museum

The Elizabethan mansion Wollaton Hall was built in 1588 with money from early coal mining. The house is open to the public and contains a natural history museum. In the stables behind it is the Nottingham Industrial Museum. This was set up by a voluntary group in 1964 and opened in 1971. It has five galleries telling the story of industries of special importance in the region: coal mining, railways, bicycle-making, motorcycle manufacture, lace-making, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, tobacco and printing. The mining display includes a reconstructed horse-gin for lifting coal up a shaft. The collection of working steam and diesel engines contains the museum’s first object, a beam engine of 1858 from Basford pumping station, which supplied drinking water to the city. There are also two traction engines made by Fowler of Leeds. The manufacture of lace was particularly important in Nottingham, where the time-consuming process of making lace by hand was mechanised from 1808. The region’s lace-making machines were exported around the world.

Nottingham Industrial Museum
The Courtyard, Wollaton Hall and Deer Park
NG8 2AE Nottingham
United Kingdom
+44 (0) 115 - 9285937
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