Exhibition Building

Exhibition room banner

 

Open Daily
10am to 4:45pm
Last Entry 4:30pm
Site Admission Fee
Rear of Nunckley Quarry

Nunckley Quarry behind Railway Museum

This area of Leicestershire including Beacon Hill, Bradgate Park and Swithland Woods has a very interesting geological history. The old Nunckley Hill quarry has been designated a RIGS site (Regionally Important Geological and Geomorphological Site) due to the interesting rock faces around the perimeter of the quarry. The rock is over 400 million years old and was created by volcanic activity in the area.

The exhibition building provides additional display space, with displays covering the Geology of Charnwood Forest, quarrying at Mountsorrel, and the history of the Mountsorrel Railway, including the story of its restoration.

Our initial displays include :-

  • Quarrying in Mountsorrel: The first 6000 Years
  • Quarrying in Mountsorrel: New Horizons
  • Quarrying in Mountsorrel: The impact of the new railway
  • Quarrying in Mountsorrel: Quarrying goes corporate
  • Quarrying in Mountsorrel: The great depression, the need to merge
  • Quarrying in Mountsorrel: The modern quarry
  • Swithland Slate: Roman and Medieval origins
  • Swithland Slate: Later commercial exploitation
  • The Mountsorrel Railway: Eastward to the Midland Railway
  • The Mountsorrel Railway: Westward to the Great Central Railway
  • Locomotives of the Mountsorrel Railway
  • Railway Restoration: Great things from small beginnings
  • Railway Restoration: Clearing the trackbed
  • Railway Restoration: Laying the ballast
  • Railway Restoration: Track Laying commences
  • Railway Restoration: The railway approaches Mountsorrel
  • Railway Restoration: Completing the branch line
  • Mountsorrel Tarred Macadam Co. Ltd

 
The construction of the exhibition building has been funded by a grant from Tarmac’s Landfill Community Fund together with match funding donations from the public.