Abbey Pumping Station Museum — Attraction in England

The outside space is well used and has many interesting exhibits, but unfortunately the interior is let down by a failure to make full use of the unique space, and by old fashioned and poorly conceived exhibits.

The museum seems to oscillate between a sociological theme of the changes made to people's lives by new technologies, and a civic development focus, while never fully interrogating either. The exhibits have interesting content, but are poorly laid out and the lack of structure makes the museum a confusing visit. The exhibits contain large blocks of poorly formatted text on poor resolution backgrounds, and I noticed a worrying number of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.

I would very much hope to see a revamp of the exhibits, as currently a unique building with genuine ties to interesting subject matter seems wasted by a lack of...

Set in a nice little plot with model railway, play park for children with adjacent family picnic area, the pumping station itself is a lovely display of Victorian engineering. The interior is divided into two main sections - a small museum wi technical model displays, and the main pump-room. The pump-room machine was sadly static when we visited, but looked absolutely stunning, all painted u like the 19th Century marvel that it is, and with most of its brass parts polished a high shine.

This would be a great setting for some Steampunk photographs, and makes a delightful little stop on any journey through the area. The museum seems to rely on kind donations by the public, so feel free to do as we did and pop your spare change etc. in the collection box! These places rely on generosity to stay open, so...

We visited whilst passing on a canal boat holiday on the Leicester Ring. We were suprised to not be charged an entry fee; great start. The museum itself is small but has some great general information, some really good local history, and some really good interactive stuff for kids. The absolute highlight, however, was the nearly 2 hours we got in the way of a 'personal tour' from volunteer Mick, who showed us round all of the old vehicles and exhibits and gave us both history and personal insight into his life as a mechanic working on many different machines during his working life, but also the fabulous work that he and the other volunteers now do for the museum. Keep up the really good work - you deserve all the support...