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.
AUGUST UPDATE
After several weeks of operational difficulties, which has seen problems with both our steam locomotive, No. 31 and our Class 03 diesel, we have now managed to get our programme for the year back on track (no pun intended).
Unfortunately, No.31 has a pair of broken piston rings which need to be replaced, and she will now be out of service until next year. This coincides with exceptionally dry conditions in the park which would make it unwise to operate a steam engine even if she were in rude health.
Our Class 03 diesel shunter has been affected by the hot conditions that have prevailed since June but is due to perform at the final Invitation Day of 2026, which will be taking place during September. We still have places available if you wish to join us; contact us through the e-mail address on the Events page.
It has been enormously frustrating to have had to cancel the various events in July and August and we apologise to all those visitors affected by this.
Finally, we have said our farewells to long-term resident rhinoceros, Gus. This life-size model was made in the 1960s for a comedy film starring Tony Hancock but the film was never made. The rhino was bought from the maker in the 1990s and has been at Fawley ever since. Gus is to be auctioned by Dreweatts, Newbury on Wednesday 12th August.
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.
