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.
September Update
The first weekend of September saw a flurry of activity with a party for Fawley Village residents, followed by our final Invitation Day of the year. The Invitation Day was attended by about 350 visitors who were entertained by Jack Dibnah’s steam locomotive, Witch, arriving on a low-loader before hauling guests up and down the hill. Mercifully, the rain stayed away having dampened the park during the previous week, reducing the risk of lineside fires.
The locomotive performed admirably over the track, some of which had been re-ballasted by contractors during the previous couple of weeks.
Our own steam engine, No 31, left site on the same low-loader to have its piston rings replaced over the winter and we look forward to her return for the 2027 season.
After the excitement of the weekend, we were delighted, once again, to play host to the National Transport Trust for their annual awards. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t play ball so visiting guests and vehicles got rained on.
Images of these events can be found on the pages of this site.
Our 2026 public programme has now come to an end and we are starting our programme of winter works. Planning for our 2027 programme is well advanced so, if you would like to join in, either as visitor or a volunteer, please drop us a line.
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Michael Knowles arrives for the NTT Awards at a very wet Fawley in his beautifully restored 1928 Bentley Bobtail
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.
