
My son and his wedding photographer Dad took a quick trip to Bury Transport Museum. We’re lucky that there’s such historical places so close to our home. The museum is located in a Grade II listed building which at one time was the Castlecroft Goods Warehouse. This local tourist attraction has been open since 1973, initially ran be volunteers of the East Lancashire Railway. Unfortunately it was closed between 2003 and 2010 due to problems with the roof, but since then has been educating visitors about the industrial heritage of the North West.
My son and I enjoyed looking at the excellent restored vehicles and various authentic exhibits. It was really interesting to get a glimpse of the jobs and lives of people who lived through the last 150 years. There is plenty to see: a horse drawn tram, ‘Hilda’, one of the first Steam Engines, and various buses and transport vehicles through the ages. One bus is even a museum in itself..perhaps even the smallest museum in the UK!
My son is not two yet, but he still loved the Bury Transport Museum. He found the cobbled stone of the ground floor a little tough to walk on unassisted, falling over a couple of times, be he still liked touching the vehicles, trying to turn the wheels, and exploring round the back of them. He was initially reluctant to go on the buses, but once on the bus-history bus, he was bedazzled by the various multi-coloured signs, pictures and model buses.
He had the most fun on the second floor of the museum where there was colour objects for him to fiddle with and large models for him to look at. Unfortunately, he’s still a little too small to enjoy all the details of the model railway, but the large van models in glass cases really drew his attention. He was a little unnerved by the mannequins in period dress. I guess he’s too young to tell the difference between them and real people. He also loved the lifts, which was just typical!
Looking after a little one, meant I wasn’t able to read all the really interesting descriptions of the these vehicles from the past, but we nonetheless this wedding photographer had a great time at the Bury Transport Museum!