Fawley Museum
Welcome to the Fawley Museum website.
Fawley Museum is a private museum established in the 1960s by the late Sir William McAlpine at his estate near Henley on Thames. It hosts a fine collection of memorabilia and models relating to railways and other forms of transport together with a working standard gauge railway operating on the steepest gradient in the country.
Since its inception, the railway and museum have grown steadily with artefacts and buildings arriving from locations all around the the country. Many buildings have been rescued and reassembled at Fawley Hill to save them from demolition, creating a unique urban landscape in a country estate. More detail of this can be found at our History of the Railway page.
The museum includes a wide range of interesting and unusual transport artefacts which will appeal to visitors of all ages. The park contains a variety of animals including rheas, peacocks, wallabies and many species of deer.
The museum and railway are open on a limited number of days during the year and admission is only by prior application and invitation. Capacity is limited and tickets are not available on the day. For more information, please visit our Events page.
Fawley Museum is run and staffed entirely by a group of friendly volunteers who undertake almost all of the necessary maintenance tasks associated with a working railway. If you would like to join our team and contribute to the day-to-day operation of the museum in a highly sociable environment, further information can be found on our Volunteering page. We have a need for a variety of skills so you don't have to be an expert on railways.
November Update
With the completion of the 2024 running season at the end of September, our thoughts have turned to the winter maintenance programme and, in particular, the track and structures in the park. Unfortunately, this has coincided with the rutting season for the various breeds of deer who live there. Rutting males can be extremely aggressive and it is safer not to invade their territory, so we have to sit this out for a while. Still, it's not as if there aren't plenty of other things to do on the safe side of the fence.
We have now agreed our programme of Invitation Days for 2025. If you are not yet on our mailing list and would like tickets, please contact us through the e-mail address on our Events page or by using the contact form at the bottom of the page. Although we cannot guarantee steam haulage on any particular day for technical reasons, we are planning to have a steam engine in operation at each of our Invitation Days next year.
On that subject, No 31's 10-year overhaul is progressing well at Didcot and we are looking forward to her return next year. As she is being worked on under cover, work shouldn't be hampered as the weather deteriorates. Work on our Shark brake vans is currently progressing well with sanding down prior to being painted shortly.
There are plenty more interesting projects like this on both the railway and in the museum so, if you would like to come and join our friendly volunteer team to work with us on these, please drop us a line through the contact form below or through the Volunteering page
Bambi, our very special and (almost) tame deer died naturally following a leg injury in October.
RIP little one.
Our enthusiastic and knowledgeable volunteers look forward to welcoming you to Fawley Museum soon.
Details about the Fawley Hill Estate can be found at www.fawleyhill.co.uk
We hope that you enjoy browsing the pages of the web-site. If you have any comments or questions, please get in touch using the contact form at the bottom of each web-page.
