Jonjon explores! Nottingham Industrial Museum

Glance: Nottingham Industrial Museum

After you’ve been to the Wollaton Hall and before going downhill for the deer, do reserve another hour for one more attraction. After all, you’ve climbed all the way here, so why not save the potential energy and visit this seventeenth-century stable a one-minute walk away?

You can imagine how imperative is Nottingham’s glorious past, for this is what the first half of the museum’s about. Aided with exhibits like the printing press, lace machines, telephones and clocks, it tells the story of how these models get developed over its humping factory years.

See for yourself: Nottingham Industrial Museum

But then as you enter the courtyard, your trip swerves into the mundane and the everyday, as, out of nowhere – you’re in a guided tour in a full-sized Victorian kitchen. Which means what follows is a demonstration of how every part of every chore is used to be done. And, ringing in the back, is this horror / progressive story (depending on how you see it), of how coal has been burnt in the homes back in the days, being more efficient than wood but definitely much, much sootier.

Sooner or later you’ll realize, as with other big-city industrial attractions. At some point, it must boil down to this – steam engine. And there’s a swamp of engines here, but one particularly Brobdingnagian one is there to help you imagine the scale of the revolution.

Sandwiched between the giants are these display boards debunking the myth that James Watt “invented” steam engines. (Factoid: Having boosted their efficiency this swiftly led to the Industrial Revolution. But steam engines had existed long before he was born).

Now really. You can go downhill to find deer and play games.

When you feel like life is too short, come join my 25-min museum tour. Or find yourself in my novel, check out the photo of the day and finish it off with a secret prize.

Tags - in_depth_tourism; museum; London_writer; London_travel; indie_writer; independent_blogger