The museum divides the displays relating to five areas: Textiles, Transport, Communications, Mining and Steam.
Textiles Two key inventions originating from Nottinghamshire gave rise to the local textile industry: • In 1589,
William Lee (inventor) of Calverton (just north of Nottingham), developed a framework
knitting machine that enabled the manufacture of large volumes of stocking hoses at speeds far in excess of those achievable by hand knitting. By the 1760s there were some 20,000 of these machines installed in cottages dotted around the East Midlands and centred on Nottingham. The galleries display two 17th-century Baskerville coaches of dubious origin,
Thomas Humber's own bicycle, a Brough Superior car, and a unique Celer car.
Communication Exhibits show how Nottingham changed the communications industry, and how the communications industry changed the daily lives of Nottingham people. Visitors can see and hear restored vintage radios and gramophones dating back to the 1920s, and tap their own Morse code message on a telegraph system
Mining and agriculture In the yard is a coal truck from Clifton Colliery from the days when this mine was providing most of the coal for the nearby Wilford Power Station which was situated on the site of what is now the Riverside Retail Park. Nearby is situated a restored living van. These were towed behind steam engines and steam rollers and provided accommodation for labourers whilst working on farms or road works. There are usually a number of tractors to be found in the tractor yard and these can sometimes be seen working during steaming days. The tractor collection comprises a
Standard Fordson and a
Field Marshall Series 2. Outside the engine-house is a yard which is home to a number of barn engines, used previously to drive items like pumps and agricultural machinery. There are examples from manufacturers such as Wolseley. The barn engines are usually seen operating at steaming days.
Engines The Steam Gallery contains a Basford Beam Engine, one of a pair of engines built in 1858 by R. W. Hawthorn in Newcastle upon Tyne. It was installed at
Basford Pumping Station to lift water 110 ft from the sandstone below to supply fresh water to the City of Nottingham. The engine was replaced in 1965 and was removed to the purpose-built Steam Gallery where it was first fired in 1975. Also in this building today are a variety of pumps and engines, many of which were removed from local companies; for example E. Reader & Sons of Phoenix Engine Works, Cremorne Street, Nottingham (Makers of high-speed stationary steam engines). At the bottom end of the gallery stand two ploughing engines. These have consecutive registration numbers and were the last two production engines to come out of
Fowlers Leeds Foundry. Owned by Nottingham City Council, they were used for ploughing the treated sewage into the land at a large dairy farm at Stoke Bardolph. One of these engines is operational and is used at the steam up events. Next to the ploughing engines is a
J. T. Marshall Portable steam engine, built at the Nottingham Engineering Works, Sandiacre, in 1886. It has been restored to full working order and can be seen operating at the steam up events.
Other exhibits An operational model railway can also be seen in the steam hall along with a working model of a Robey stationary engine. In a separate room, there is a very large stationary mill engine that was previously housed in a Nottinghamshire pub before being rescued by the museum. Behind the mill engine lies a 00 gauge railway display. Alongside the communications exhibits are clocks and printing machines. There are also items from prominent local companies such as
Boots the Chemist,
Players Cigarettes and
Stanton Ironworks. In one of the museum's yards is a carved stone crest from Nottingham's first railway station, opened by the
Midland Counties Railway in 1839. ==Notes==