We are not just a Steam museum, we are steeped in history going back several generations. On March 4th 1824, 29 respected politian's and businessmen got together in a pub in London and started a movement that would save lives to this day. Sir Charles Flower was one of those men who started what is now the RNLI.
We have a great variety of steam engines, cars and tractors in our museum. Come and see for your own eyes! A great day out for the family.
In 1881 William James Holmes returned from Scotland (his father having married the daughter of Sir Charles Flower). His son William Charles Flower Homes took over the estate in 1908 and built a generator and produced the first electricity in Strumpshaw.
The family traditions still live on in the museum, a place where the past can be seen in all the steam engines and the farm machinery that helped shape our future. Bring a picnic lunch, sit in the paddock on a Summer's day and just enjoy the view.
A 15-year labour of love has seen a Victorian fairground ride restored to its former glory and opened to the public at Strumpshaw Steam Museum.
Malcolm Potts bought his Galloper carousel ride in 2009 and has been working with a group of fellow volunteers at the museum to bring it back to fairground condition.
And this Sunday (23 June), after thousands of hours of painstaking restoration, the Gallopers will get their first public outing at the Norwich Classic Car Show being held at the museum.
“It is fantastic to see it all back together again and working so well,” said Malcolm. He lives and runs his heating and plumbing business in Cambridge but spends most weekends volunteering at Strumpshaw. “What makes it all worthwhile is when you see the children coming off the ride with big smiles on their faces.”
Kiki Angelrath, whose late father Wesley Key founded Strumpshaw Steam Museum, was delighted to have the ride on loan and open to the public.
“After all the time they have spent on the ride and all the set-backs they have had, it is absolutely wonderful to see it completed – and how marvellous it looks!” she said.
In 2015 a fire broke out near some trucks in which key parts of the carousel were stored, destroying woodwork for the frame and the carved wooden centre of the ride.
“That was a very dark day,” remembers Malcolm. “And to make matters worse, we had all the brass poles stolen from storage in Cambridge.”
But help was at hand - a showman from Southampton offered Malcolm a new centre piece while Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach came up with other parts taken from a similar ride in the 1980s.
Originally commissioned in 1895, very little is known about the ride until it was bought around 1945 by a showman in Colwyn Bay in Wales, who in turn, sold it on to another fairground operator in Buckinghamshire.
By the 1980s the Gallopers were at Beamish Museum near Durham and featured in several films, including Disney’s The Watcher In the Woods, Catherine Cookson’s The Fifteen Streets, starring Sean Bean, and Enid Blyton’s Famous Five.
Malcolm bought the ride in 2009 – he admits on a bit of an impulse - and has financed the cost of restoration. The brightly painted Gallopers have space for 30 passengers and the ride is illuminated by 400 light bulbs.
Malcolm became a museum volunteer in 2006 and is grateful to Mrs Angelrath for allowing him to bring the Gallopers to Strumpshaw to carry out the restoration work. “After all, it’s not as if you can do this in your back garden!” he joked.
He is also grateful to the many fellow volunteers and advisers who gave their time to help realise his dream.
The museum is always on the lookout for new volunteers – no previous experience is necessary, just a willingness to join in the many projects on the go.
It is with great sadness that we have lost a great volunteer Chris Spinks. 74 year old Chris Spinks passed away, on Wednesday 4th May 2022, at the Norfolk and Norwich hospital, surrounded by his family. Chris was a local chap, with a very dry sense of humour and a generous nature. A practical man who would help anybody.
Chris came to the museum in the late 1990s and spent the majority of his time looking after and driving the Showman Seam engine, before any event he would be joined by his wife Gloria to get the engine ready for display and it was always well turned out. He enjoyed driving the Showman Steam Engine on its 100 birthday. He was a valued volunteer who will be sadly missed.
He is survived by Gloria, his beloved wife of 48 years, his two daughters, Marie and Debbie, and his grandchildren.
Chris’ funeral will be open for everyone who knew him to attend and dates and times will be shared when the details have been finalised.
