Amberley Working Museum

Amberley Working Museum is a museum at Amberley, near Arundel in West Sussex, England.

The museum was founded in 1979 by the Southern Industrial History Centre Trust and has previously been known as the Amberley Chalk Pits Museum or plain Amberley Museum.

The museum is a registered charity and has the support of an active Friends organisation.

Location

It is a 36 acre (146,000 m²) open air museum, [cite book|author=Amberley Working Museum|title=Amberley Working Museum|year=2005] next to Amberley railway station, dedicated to the industrial heritage of South East England and with a special interest in aspects of the history of communications and transport. [cite journal|author=Dean, Ian|title=Chalk Pits Museum|journal=Yesteryear Transport|issue=9|pages=12–15|date=1981 Summer]

The museum is sited in a former chalk quarry [ Owned by the Pepper Family for 30 years Times 24/2/04 Obituary of Ginny Fiennes (née Pepper) ] where the chalk was converted into lime for use in mortar and cement, [cite book|author=Aldsworth, Fred|title=Limeburning and the Amberley Chalkpits|publisher=West Sussex County Council|location=Chichester|year=1979|isbn=0-900800-33-X] and remaining on site are several kilns, including a De Witt set, and associated buildings including offices, bagging shed and locomotive shed.

Also to be seen is the quarry tunnel (which appeared as Mainstrike Mine in the James Bond film "A View to a Kill"). Additional buildings have been relocated or replicated on the site and exhibition halls added. The natural history and geology of the site can be seen from a nature trail.

Exhibits & Collections

*BT Connected Earth telecommunications exhibition [cite web|url=http://www.connected-earth.com|title=Connected Earth|accessdate=2007-05-13]
*EDF Energy Electricity Hall [cite book|author=Gordon, Bob|title=One Hundred Years of Electricity Supply 1881-1981|publisher=Seeboard|location=Hove|year=1981]
*Vintage Wireless and Communications exhibition and Amateur radio station
*Narrow gauge railway (2 ft (60 cm) gauge) and railway exhibition hall, devoted to British industrial narrow gauge railways. [cite book|author=Amberley Chalk Pits Museum|title=Industrial Railways of the South-East|publisher=Middleton Press|location=Midhurst|year=1984|isbn=0-906520-09-6] [cite book|author=Dean, Ian|title=Industrial Narrow Gauge Railways|publisher=Shire Publications|location=Princes Risborough|year=1984|isbn=0-85263-752-7] There are over 30 locomotives, the majority being internal combustion examples, and around 80 items of rolling stock, chiefly freight cars, [cite book|author=Cork, Gerry|title=The Amberley Museum Narrow Gauge and Industrial Railway Collection|publisher=Amberley Museum|year=2001] [cite web|url=http://home.fastnet.co.uk/gerrycork/amberleyrail|title=Narrow Gauge and Industrial Railway Collection|accessdate=2007-05-13] [cite journal|author=Smithers, Mark|title=The Railway Treasures of Amberley|journal=Railway World|volume=57|issue=664|pages=33–5|date=1995 Sept] based largely on the collection of the former Brockham Museum (relocated here in 1982). [cite journal|author=Smith, D.H.|title=Brockham Metamorphosis — at the Chalk Pits Museum|journal=Narrow Gauge|issue=101|pages=1–6|date=1983-4] There is special interest in railway material from the Dorking Greystone Lime Company [cite book|author=Townsend, J.L.|title=Townsend Hook and the Railways of the Dorking Greystone Lime Co. Ltd|publisher=Brockham Museum|location=Betchworth|year=1980|isbn=0-9504720-4-2] and also from the Groudle Glen Railway in the Isle of Man [cite book|author=Smith, David H.|title=The Groudle Glen Railway|publisher=Plateway Press|location=Brighton|year=1989|isbn=1-871980-00-X]
*Southdown Bus garage, a reconstructed 1920s depot housing working buses chiefly from the local operator Southdown Motor Services [cite book|author=Southdown Omnibus Trust|title=The Amberley Collection|year=c.2004] [cite web|url=http://home.fastnet.co.uk/gerrycork/amberleybus/amberleybus.htm|title=Southdown Bus Garage Project|accessdate=2007-05-13] [cite journal|author=Lamb, Philip|title=Before Mary Was Queen|journal=Bus & Coach Preservation|volume=5|issue=8|pages=6–11|date=2003 July] based on the collection of the Southdown Omnibus Trust [cite web|url=http://www.freewebs.com/crashgearbox|title=Crash Gearbox: the website of the Southdown Omnibus Trust|accessdate=2007-05-13]
*Wheelwright's Shop, from Horsham
*Machine Shop [cite book|author=Fermer, Hugh|title=Machine Tools: a history 1540-1986|publisher=Amberley Museum|year=1995|isbn=0-951932-91-8]
*Ironmonger's shop
*Timber yard and Steam crane
*Village Garage, a reconstructed 1930s automobile repair shop
*Paviors Hall of Road Making, located in a 19th-century iron-framed industrial building relocated from Horsham
*Cycle Exhibition
*Rural telephone exchange, incorporating 1940s equipment from Coolham
*Arundel Gin Building, housing a metal foundry
*Brickyard drying shed, late 19th century, from Petersfield, Hampshire
*Concrete Exhibition
*Fairmile Café, a 1930s roadside building partly housing the Ted Page collection of domestic and agricultural artefacts
*Dover Cottage Pump House, from Arundel, and water pumping display
*Stationary engine shed, and Municipal engine house from Littlehampton
*Fire station, reconstruction of a 1950s building due for completion in 2008
*Toll bridge hut, from Littlehampton swing bridge
*Printing Shop
*Brewery and Laundry (the latter with Victorian equipment from Warnham)
*Cobbler's shop, with equipment from Bognor Regis
*Hall of Tools, with associated demonstrations by the Tools and Trades History Society

Crafts demonstrated on site include clay tobacco pipe making, woodturning, broom making, walking stick making, caning (furniture) and the work of the blacksmith. Special events are held regularly.

outhdown Bus collection

On open days the Southdown Bus collection operates bus rides throughout the day. Their collection of vehicles is listed below.

*Operational Buses
*1914 Southdown Tilling Stevens Open Top 41 seater IB-552. (Restricted use due to delicacy of the Bus)
*1938 Selvoke and Drewry Tramocar BP9822 Single Deck. (Usually used on non busy occasions)
*1927 Southdown Dennis 30cwt Single Deck UF 1517.
*1931 Southdown Leyland Titan TD1 Double Deck 50 seater UF 4673.
*1931 Southdown Leyland Titan TD1 Double Deck 50 seater UF 7428.
*1929 Southdown Leyland Titan TD1 Open Top 51 seater UF 4813.
*1927 Thames Valley Traction Tilling Stevens Single Deck MO 9324.

*Buses undergoing repair or restoration
*1922 Southdown Leyland N Type Open Top 51 seater CD 5125. (Undergoing repairs)
*1923 Southdown Tilling Stevens Single Deck CD 4867. (Chassis only, planned to be fitted with a raked charabanc type body)
*1930 Southdown Tilling Stevens B10 A2 Single Deck 31 seater UF 6805.

References

ee also

*List of British railway museums
*British narrow gauge railways

External links

* [http://www.amberleymuseum.co.uk/ Museum website]
* [http://www.strollingguides.co.uk/books/sussex/places/amberley.php Photographs and Description]