Adult Groups:
We welcome all types of groups to the Station and can arrange bespoke tours to meet your needs. These could include a presentation, demonstrations, and information as you are guided around the site looking at the railway, the museum in the old station rooms, and the Goods Shed. The Buffet car can be booked separately to coincide with the visit (if available) and the bar is available at the normal, advertised opening times. Depending on what you would like to include in your visit there will be a suggested donation/charge. Please use the QR code below to make an enquiry or email: museum@rhts.co.uk.
Educational visits: information for colleges, schools, nurseries and children’s groups.
The experienced volunteers at Rushden Transport Museum welcome visits from schools (years 1-6), nurseries and other adult led children’s groups of up to 30 children plus the appropriate adult support.
Together we can arrange a bespoke visit to suit your learning objectives, within the following one hour volunteer led framework:
Meet and greet on the platform, with Golden Rules Safety Talk, handout of souvenir platform ticket. In groups, visit the museum and the railway compound with suitable information and activities. Finishing together for our good-byes.
Teachers/adult leaders can also use the station setting for their own activities by arrangement, with volunteers giving light touch support.
At Rushden Transport Museum and Railway there are many opportunities across most areas of the curriculum. If you have not visited the Station and museum take a look at the quick guided below for inspiration. Let us know your chosen topic/theme and we can adjust the content of the volunteer led visit to suit. If you want to lead the session yourself then we will step back and give light support during your visit.
Visiting the Station is a great opportunity for learning outside of the classroom and meeting and talking to new, older adults , in a friendly, secure environment. Our volunteers are experienced in engaging with children and we aim to make the visit fun for everyone including the teachers!
There are plenty of opportunities to learn at Rushden Transport Museum and Railway. The museum collection is housed in the restored, Rushden Station built in 1893, owned and run by the Rushden Historical Transport Society.
It gives its older visitors a nostalgic trip down memory lane and a chance for children to see how things have changed within living memory.
The focus for presenting our collection is how transport relates to Rushden and its surrounding area, in particular the Midlands Railway branch line from Wellingborough to Higham Ferrers which was essential in the development of the boot and shoe trade and consequently the growth of Rushden. This makes us an ideal location for the Key Stage 1 National Curriculum foci ‘changes within living memory ‘ and ‘significant historical events, people and places in their own locality’, and for Key Stage 2 ‘study of an aspect of history or a site dating from a period beyond 1066 that is significant in the locality and ‘a significant turning point in British history, for example, the first railways’.
We have had groups visit us to do art, role play and drama, story telling /inspiration for creative writing, a local study, significant events, maths and eye spy quizzes safety, directions…
As a registered charity we would like to suggest a minimum donation of £1 per child for pre-arranged visits, cash on the day, for other payment arrangements please email accountspayable @rhts.co.uk, copy to museum@rhts.co.uk, thank you.
If you need a receipt, please let us know before your visit, thank you.
The railway station is potentially a dangerous location, but to mitigate the risk we have three golden rules and one silver rule, we ask the children why they think they are important. They are:
Always walk, never run.
Stay away from the edge of the platform.
Don’t touch anything unless invited.
Look at Thomas , the station cat, but please do not touch him.
We have a generic risk assessment , see below. Visiting organisations are advised to make their own risk assessment, taking into consideration their own children’s needs, following a pre visit which can be arranged by emailing : museum@rhts.co.uk
Rushden Transport Museum has a Safeguarding policy statement, see below.
Please contact museum@rhts.co.uk giving your contact details, the ages and size of your group, preferred dates for your visit and your topic of interest. Or…
Scan the QR code for a direct link to email your enquiry.