The advantage of having a large site is that we can celebrate other elements of Hampshire’s transport heritage. The museum provides a home for heritage steam and bus groups as well as our own miniature railway. Working together we create our event days including the Steam Up Sunday events which run twice a year in April and October when the courtyard is full of steam, with traction engines and road rollers on display. We also hold Museum in Steam events once a month between May and September. Likewise with the buses, we hold joint events and offer rides on the buses between the museum and other local venues – especially during our May Beer Festival. Using our own 7 1/4 inch railway, we give train rides for our younger visitors which are available on our event days and when advertised at other times in the year.

Steam

All of the machinery at the brickworks was run by steam and most of it still does. We have four static steam engines, two run the large machinery, one is a small water pump for the old boilers and one runs a small pugmill in the country brickworks display.

Once a month we aim to power them all up. Seeing and hearing the old machinery in action is one of the highlights of a visit. This does depend on sufficient manpower being available but it isn’t hard to find volunteers to run steam engines.

We also have a resident steam society on site, South Hampshire Historic Steam and Engineering Society.  Twice a year they steam up all their engines and bring them out on display offering trailer rides. We can usually expect one or more turning up for our regular monthly events as well.

  • Steam engine
  • Brickmaking
  • Traction Engine
  • Steam up

Southampton & District Transport & Heritage Trust

  • Buses
  • Buses
  • Bus
  • Bus

We are lucky enough to have the The Southampton & District Transport Heritage Trust (S&DTHT) based at The Brickworks.  They were established in 2001 and are dedicated to the preservation of former Southampton buses and other vehicles from around the local area. The Trust provides an opportunity for many to get involved with the preservation and operation of Southampton’s heritage transport. The activities of the Trust revolve around the preservation and restoration of vehicles together with social meetings of members and their guests..

They have approximately twenty vehicles that they look after of all ages. With a membership of over eighty they enjoy all kinds of activities and their buses can be seen at lots of local events, of course including ours. More details can be found on the Southampton & District Transport & Heritage Trust website

Trains at The Brickworks

When the brickworks were in operation in the early 1900’s narrow gauge railways were used to move the clay around the site. This ended when the site became so damaged by digging that there were no clear runs left and they moved to using an aerial ropeway instead

As part of the museum visit we have a demonstration mineral line that uses our Simplex diesel shunter and rolling stock. We show how the railway might have worked when we were in full operation. The mineral line is usually working on our steam up events.

We also have a 7 1/4 inch railway with a 400+m run through the site. This is used to give train rides for our younger visitors which are available on our steam up events and at other times in the year.

  • Miniature Railway
  • The railway