Corfe Castle's wonderful new museum opens

News item - dated 6th August 2000 - Photographs are copyright Andrew P.M. Wright

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Some of the hundreds of railway artefacts on display in the museum.

Here are some photos of the Swanage Railway's magnificent new museum in Corfe Castle's good shed. They were taken on the morning it opened to the public - Sunday, August 6th, 2000.

No visit to the Swanage Railway is complete without a visit to this excellent resource, and admission is free of charge to all visitors - with voluntary donations greatfully accepted, of course.

As well as restoring the rail link between Swanage and Wareham, one of the fundamental aims of the Swanage Railway Trust is to preserve and restore for the public benefit items of historical, architectural, engineering or scientific value in connection with railways, and the museum is ideally suited to fulfilling part of this role.

From left to right (outside the goods shed) are Geoff and June Neale, Bob McGaw, Norman Blears and Mick Stone.

Pictured in front of the Goods Shed - and inside the museum - is the team responsible for the conversion of the Goods Shed to top-rank museum: from left to right (outside the goods shed) are Geoff and June Neale, Bob McGaw, Norman Blears and Mick Stone.

Also involved with the museum project have been Swanage Railway museum curator and archivist David Haysom as well as Museum Group members Robin Brasher, Stan Hoey, John Page, and Peter and Heather Foster.

As can be seen in the photographs on this page, the spacious and historic Goods Shed at Corfe Castle is crammed with signs, tools and railway equipment from a bygone age. All these photos were taken on the morning it opened to the public on Sunday, August 6th, 2000

Richard Legge of Corfe Mullen - the first visitor through the doors of the new museum.

The first member of the public through the goods shed doors was self-employed coach driver Richard Legge of Corfe Mullen. Richard had taken his 4 year old son on the last BR train from Swanage to Wareham on Saturday, January 1st, 1972! Richard also saw the last steam train run down the Somerset and Dorset line through Corfe Mullen in March, 1966.

Upstairs and Downstairs - Richard Legge of Corfe Mullen takes in the huge variey of exhibits.

A young visitor to the museum checks an old Pooley parcels weighing machine.