kids encyclopedia robot

Amberley Museum & Heritage Centre facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Amberley Museum
Amberley Museum Logo.png
1936 Bedford WTL.jpg
Recreating the 1930s at Amberley
Lua error in Module:Location_map at line 420: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
Former name Amberley Working Museum, Amberley Chalk Pits Museum, Amberley Museum & Heritage Centre
Established 1979
Location Amberley, West Sussex, England
Type Industrial heritage
Accreditation Association of Independent Museums, Museum Accreditation
Visitors 60,000 per year
Public transit access National Rail Amberley
Nearest car park Amberley Museum Car Park

Amberley Museum is a cool open-air museum in West Sussex, England. It's near Arundel, in a village called Amberley. This museum shows you how people lived and worked in the past. It's all about industrial heritage, which means old factories, machines, and ways of making things. The museum is run by a charity, so it's not for profit.

It first opened in 1978. The museum is built inside old chalk quarries. For over 100 years, people dug up chalk here to make lime. You can still see some of the original lime kilns (big ovens) where they heated the chalk. The museum has lots of different collections. These include narrow gauge railways (small trains), old buses, and many other displays about how things were made long ago.

Exploring Amberley Museum

The museum covers a huge area, about 36 acres (146,000 square meters). It's right next to Amberley railway station. The museum focuses on the industrial history of South East England. It also has a special interest in how people communicated and traveled in the past.

What was the Chalk Quarry for?

The museum is located in an old chalk quarry. Here, chalk was turned into lime. Lime was used to make mortar and cement for building. You can still see several kilns (ovens) on the site. There are also buildings like offices and sheds that were used for the chalk business.

You can even see the quarry tunnel. This tunnel was used in the James Bond film A View to a Kill! Over time, other old buildings have been moved to the museum. New exhibition halls have also been built. There's even a nature trail where you can learn about the plants, animals, and geology of the area.

Cool Things to See and Do

The museum has many different exhibitions and collections. Most of them are open for you to explore. Some might not be working every day, but they are still fun to see.

  • Connected Earth is an exhibition about telecommunications. It shows how we used to talk to each other over long distances.
  • The Electricity Hall explains how electricity was used in homes and factories.
  • The Machine Shop has old machine tools and hand tools. These were used to work with metal. Some of these tools are still used today to fix things at the museum!
  • The Wheelwrights Shop came from Horsham. A wheelwright is someone who makes and repairs wheels.
  • The Vintage Wireless and Communications exhibition has old radios and a working Amateur radio station.
  • Ockenden's Ironmonger's shop came from Littlehampton. An ironmonger sold metal goods and tools.
  • The Timber yard shows how wood was cut and stored. You can also see a Steam crane there.
  • The Village Garage is a recreated car repair shop from the 1930s.
  • The Paviors Hall of Road Making shows how roads were built. It's in an old building from the 1800s that was moved from Horsham.
  • There's also a Cycle Exhibition in the Paviors Hall.
  • The Railway Hall displays engines and wagons from narrow gauge industrial railways.
  • The Billingshurst Signal Box is a rebuilt signal box. It used to control trains at a crossing in Billingshurst.
  • You can see a Contractors Monorail. This was used to move materials on building sites.
  • A Rural telephone exchange from the 1940s came from Coolham.
  • The Arundel Gin Building has displays about working with lead and plumbing.
  • An old Brickyard drying shed from the late 1800s came from Petersfield, Hampshire.
  • The Fairmile Café is a 1930s roadside cafe that was moved from the A29 road.
  • The Dover Cottage Pump House from Arundel shows how water was pumped.
  • The Stationary engine shed and Municipal engine house came from Littlehampton.
  • The Fire Station is a copy of a 1950s building. It has old fire engines and displays about firefighting in Sussex.
  • A Toll bridge hut from the Littlehampton swing bridge is also on display.
  • You can see a working Printing Workshop.
  • The Cobbler's shop has equipment from Bognor Regis. A cobbler repairs shoes.
  • The Hall of Tools has many different tools. Sometimes, people show how these tools were used.

Crafts and Demonstrations

At the museum, you can often see people demonstrating old crafts. These include woodturning, making brooms, making walking sticks, and the work of a blacksmith and potters. The museum also holds special events regularly.

Trains and Buses!

Amberley Museum has amazing collections of old trains and buses. You can even ride on some of them!

Amberley's Narrow Gauge Railway

Amberley Museum (28235095152)
A narrow gauge railway train at Amberley Museum

The Amberley Museum Railway is a special railway with a 2 ft (610 mm) narrow gauge. This means the tracks are closer together than regular train tracks. It's all about British industrial narrow gauge railways. The museum has 45 locomotives (train engines). Eight of these are steam-powered, 29 use internal combustion (like a car engine), and 4 are electric. There are also about 80 goods wagons (train cars). Many of these came from the Brockham Museum. The museum is especially interested in railway items from the Dorking Greystone Lime Company and the Groudle Glen Railway from the Isle of Man. Two of the steam engines are currently working!

Southdown Bus Collection

Amberley Museum (32600945964)
A Southdown Leyland Cub bus at Amberley Museum

The museum also has a rebuilt 1920s Southdown Bus garage. This garage holds working buses. Most of them are from a local bus company called Southdown Motor Services. These buses are part of the Southdown Omnibus Trust collection.

On days when the museum is open, you can often take rides on these old Southdown buses throughout the day. Here are some of the buses you might see:

Buses that can be driven
  • A 1914 Worthing Motor Services/Southdown Tilling Stevens open-top bus. It has 41 seats. This bus is very old and fragile, so it's used carefully.
  • A 1922 Southdown Leyland N Type open-top bus with 51 seats.
  • A 1927 Southdown Dennis single-deck bus.
  • A 1928 Sunderland Corporation Leyland Lion LT1 single-deck bus (this one is privately owned).
  • A 1930 Southdown Tilling Stevens B10 A2 single-deck bus with 31 seats.
  • Two 1931 Southdown Leyland Titan TD1 double-deck buses, each with 50 seats.
  • A 1937 Southdown Leyland Cub single-deck bus with 24 seats.
  • A replica (copy) of a 1938 Shelvoke and Drewry Worthing Tramocar single-deck bus. This is a smaller bus often used on quieter days.

See also

  • Arundel Museum and Heritage Centre
  • List of British railway museums
  • British narrow gauge railways