Room one
Quarry and kiln
Stone from the Ashmere cuttings, hand-struck brick, roof tile and the lacquer that made the tower red. Includes a tile kiln rebuilt at half size.
On show1,860 objects
Room four holds the Lantern Tower at 1:60, rebuilt from the survey of 1908 after the original burned. Walk around it here, then come and walk around it in the hall.
Buy at the front desk on Cantwell Rise or reserve a guided tour below. Every ticket allows re-entry until closing, so you can break for lunch and come back to the tower.
Four galleries, the Lantern Tower in room four and whatever is on in the temporary room off the stairs.
Bring anything with a date on it. A carer or companion accompanying a disabled visitor comes in free, no card required.
The cheapest way in for a weekend. Children get a rubbing sheet at the desk and six brass plates to find around the building.
Pays for itself on the fourth visit. Pass holders see new exhibitions on the Thursday evening before they open.
Includes entry. The tour ends in room four with the case lighting turned up and the glass off, which is the only time anyone sees the spire without a reflection.
Led session plus free time in the galleries. Lunch room booked with the group at no extra cost.
Cash and card. Tickets are dated but not timed — there is no queue system, because on a busy Saturday the building holds 180 people and we have never been near it.
The house was a joiner's works until 1931. The rooms are the original workshops, which is why the floor slopes towards the yard and why room two still smells faintly of hide glue.
Stone from the Ashmere cuttings, hand-struck brick, roof tile and the lacquer that made the tower red. Includes a tile kiln rebuilt at half size.
Frames, joints and the tools that cut them. Six full-size trusses stand where the benches used to be, and two of them you may touch.
Elevations, sections and site notebooks, including the 1908 survey the tower model was built from. Shown in rotation, six weeks at a time.
The model, at 1:60, under a brass-framed case with lighting from below. Five tiers, eight faces, forty bells — thirty-one of them original.
Included with any ticket. Each one is built around objects we cannot keep on permanent show, either because the light would take them or because they are on loan from another collection.
What holding a building up actually looks like. Photographs, pole fittings and the repair ledgers of four sites in the county, next to the objects the work saved.
One pigment, traced from the pit to the roof of the Lantern Tower. Includes eleven tiles from the original roof, shown together for the first time since 1962.
Ladders, wicks, route books and the municipal argument over who paid for the oil. Evening openings every Thursday until 20:00 for the run of the show.
A small museum can afford to be exact. These are the figures from the last full year, published the same way the trustees see them.
Twelve thousand objects is small enough that every one has been handled by someone still working here. That is unusual, and it is the reason our labels say where a thing came from rather than what period it belongs to.
Under the yard is a conditioning loop: crates ride down into the cold leg, hold at 6 °C while the moisture in them settles, ride back up and tip out onto the study bench. It is how anything new gets into the collection.
A crate is booked in, weighed and pushed onto the carrier at the top of the descending leg. Nothing enters the galleries before this.
The chain slows as it drops. Anything carried in from a damp house gives up its moisture here rather than in a display case upstairs.
The longest part of the cycle by design. The loop is weighted so carriers dwell at the bottom and hurry on the way back up.
At the top of the rising leg the carrier tips, and the crate slides down the chute to the study bench, where it is opened and catalogued.
All three run on weekday mornings and end with free time in the galleries. Handling boxes are real objects from the teaching collection, not replicas.
Where a building comes from. Pupils sort clay samples, press a tile in a wooden mould and find the same tile on the tower model upstairs.
Measuring, scale and elevation, using the 1908 survey sheets. Each pupil leaves with a measured drawing of one bay of the museum's own front.
Down in the store with a conservator: condition reports, handling, and why the cold leg runs at 6 °C. Limited to 16 pupils and booked a term ahead.
The building is old and the floors are not level, so we say exactly what is here rather than the word "accessible". If something below would not work for you, call the front desk and ask for Rhona.
Level entrance, and a lift 1,100 × 1,400 mm serving all four rooms and the shop.
Two manual chairs at the desk, free, first come. Reserve one by phone for a set day.
Seating with arms at least every 25 metres, and folding stools by the door of each room.
On the ground and first floors, both with a left-hand transfer and an alarm cord.
A carer or companion is admitted free with any ticket. No proof asked for.
Tuesdays 10:00–11:00: lighting down, no music, ear defenders at the desk.
A sign-interpreted tour on the first Saturday of the month at 14:00, booked through the form below.
Welcome everywhere including the store. Water bowls at the desk and by the lift.
“We changed the tower case in 2024 so the labels sit at 1,050 mm instead of 1,400. It cost very little and it is the change visitors mention most.”
Parking. Two blue-badge bays directly outside on Cantwell Rise, both 4.8 m long. The nearest step-free bus stop is on Marle Street, 120 m, with a dropped kerb at the corner.
Before you come. A plain-text visual guide to the building, room by room, with photographs of every doorway, is given out at the desk and posted on request.
We came for an hour and stayed until closing. My son is eight and he spent twenty minutes counting bells on the tower, which I would not have believed of him.
The guided tour is worth the extra. Seeing the case opened and the light turned up changes the model completely — you suddenly understand it is a building, not an ornament.
I use a chair and I did not have to plan the visit around it once. The lift reaches everything, and someone offered help without hovering. Rare.
Closed on Mondays, when the cases are opened and the store runs its conditioning cycle. Last admission is forty-five minutes before closing.
| Monday | Closed |
| Tuesday | 10:00 – 18:00 |
| Wednesday | 10:00 – 18:00 |
| Thursday | 10:00 – 18:00 |
| Friday | 10:00 – 18:00 |
| Saturday | 10:00 – 19:00 |
| Sunday | 11:00 – 17:00 |
Closed 24–26 December and 1 January. Open all other public holidays on Sunday hours.
General entry needs no booking — just come. Use this for the 70-minute guided tour, a school group, an interpreted tour or a research appointment in the archive.