The Brickworks Museum, in Bursledon in Hampshire, is welcoming school groups for tours and a selection of curriculum linked workshops.
The museum offers an insight into what is said to be the only complete steam driven brickworks in the UK today and provides an example of early industrialisation.
All the old buildings that were part of the brick making process, such as the machine house, the drying sheds – where innovative under floor heating operated – and the kilns – where bricks were burnt before being sent off to market – are still in place and schools are invited to travel round the museum on the route that a lump of clay would have taken before it ended up as a finished brick.
The preserved machinery that was once used to make up to 33,000 bricks a day and is still in working condition is also on display, including the original steam engine.
Workshops
The museum also provides a range of workshops supporting subjects such as Science, History, Design & Technology and Maths.
For example the Key Stage 2 workshop Factory Forces – Pulleys, Gears & Levers supports the Science curriculum by looking at the forces at work during a tour of the factory. Students will explore how the gears on the pug mill work, look at how levers help in the boiler room and see why pulleys are used to move heavy objects.
Other workshops include Making a Museum: Research & Display; Industrial Artists; Beast, Bugs & Building; and 20 Million Bricks.
The Brickworks Museum also has outdoor picnic areas, as well as indoor facilities for lunches and breaks on wet days.
For more information visit www.bursledonbrickworks.org.uk.
