Crampton Tower Museum

The engineer Thomas Crampton (1816-88) was a prolific inventor and built waterworks, railways and telegraph systems all over Europe, but throughout his life he retained links with his native town, the resort of Broadstairs on the coast of Kent, and financed and built its gas and water supply systems. He formed the Broadstairs Water Company in 1859, and its waterworks now houses a museum which is largely devoted to his life story. Its centrepiece is a 24.38 m high crenelated flint water tower, which visitors can ascend to take views across the town to the sea. The workings of the tower and its associated pumps are fully explained.  Displays include examples of Crampton’s working drawings and models, copies of his patents, and some of the many awards that he was given. The principal transport exhibit is a stage coach of 1860, and there are documentary and pictorial records of local railways, electric trams, motor buses and industries. The museum includes seven working model railways and also serves as the starting point for guided tours of a particularly interesting small town.