Thursford steam engine museum
Thursford Collection is a museum near Fakenham in Norfolk housing what is claimed to be the world's largest collection of steam engines and organs, set in the converted farm buildings of Laurel Farm in the village of Thursford. The collection owes its existence entirely to one man, George Cushing, who was born in Thursford in 1904 and developed a childhood fascination with steam engines while growing up as the son of a farm labourer. After leaving school at twelve he became a farmhand and then a steam roller driver, eventually building his own sub-contracting business with fifteen steam rollers and a steam wagon by the Second World War. As diesel machinery displaced steam in the late 1930s and 1940s, Cushing began buying up redundant engines that would otherwise have been scrapped, storing and restoring them at Laurel Farm, which he now owned. He opened his museum in the early 1970s in a series of old farm sheds, personally guiding visitors around the exhibits in his tweed jacket, flat cap and gumboots, greeting departing guests with a characteristic "Did yer loik it, then?" For his efforts in preserving Britain's steam heritage he was appointed MBE in 1989, and to protect the collection from death duties he established it as a charitable trust in 1977. He died in 2003 aged 98 and the museum is now run by his son John.
The collection includes a spectacular array of showman's engines, steam rollers and traction engines in gleaming restored condition, alongside a remarkable assembly of mechanical fairground organs. Pride of place among the engines goes to Victory, a showman's engine that underwent a major restoration project in 2023 and returned to steam after nearly forty years dormant. The museum's Mighty Wurlitzer, rescued from the Paramount Theatre in Leeds, is the fourth largest in Europe with 1,339 pipes, and resident organist Robert Wolfe has been performing daily concerts on it for over forty years. Visitors can also ride the 1896 Savages three-abreast Gallopers and a Victorian Venetian Gondola Switchback, both built at Frederick Savage's factory in nearby King's Lynn, and watch silent movies in the traditional manner. From November to December each year the museum hosts the Thursford Christmas Spectacular, a three-hour festive show performed by a cast of 120 across a 130-foot stage that draws over 100,000 visitors annually from across the country and must be booked many months in advance.