Whilst visiting friends over the Christmas holiday, we decided to take a break and visit Bury Transport Museum in the centre of Bury town. This surprisingly turned out to be a better stop than we had anticipated.

It was a cold and windy day, so I was glad that any museum was open during the festive period. Especially one that was indoors. The museum isn’t as big as the London Transport Museum that we had become so accustomed to. It was also less crowded and much quieter, which actually was much welcomed as it allowed us to appreciate what we were looking at.

Just the right size museum for a refuel

The museum isn’t big and we easily finished the visit within 45 minutes. Of course this would depend how much time you spend on each exhibit and the interactive areas. If your little ones enjoy dressing up, then they could easily spend another 15-20  minutes or so there. Although small, the museum had a range of buses, steam engines, trucks and bikes from bygone years. As the vehicles were quite old and vintage, we weren’t allowed to climb on them or have a look inside, except for a selected few. However, there were some interactive displays that explained the history of transport in the local area.

After walking around and missing the manager’s office because I thought it was an actual office for staff only! We discovered some more vintage knick knacks. #JasperBean loved sitting in the manager’s office and playing on the typewriter and telephone. He took this opportunity to be ‘the boss’ and pretended to tell daddy off for doing a bad job.

As it was during the holiday season, there was a Christmas trail for little ones to follow. Once completed, they would get a sticker as a reward. This made the walk around the museum a little bit more interesting for young ones. And a little bit competitive for the older ones (or us adults). The museum overall is well maintained and clean. The volunteer staff there are all very friendly and passionate about their jobs there. They were of course extremely helpful and knowledgeable about the local transport. Which made the visit and day there very pleasant.

Noteworthy:

The museum although indoors is cold at this time of year. There is no heating, except in the managers office. So wrap up if you are thinking of dropping by. We definitely wouldn’t have travelled to Bury just for the museum, but it was a lovely stop as we were in the area. Entry to the museum is free. However, please make a donation when you’re there as the maintenance and upkeep of the museum is all run by volunteers.

Verdict: Well worth the visit if you’re nearby or live close.

Thank you for reading and if you love trains and Christmas, why not check out our Santa Special train ride at KESR.

Love, MsMamaBean x