Beaminster Museum 2025
Dorset
Sherborne Steam & Waterwheel Centre 2025
The centre brings alive the history of Sherborne's water supplies. Watch the steam engines in operation, other vintage exhibits and visiting attractions. Audio-visual displays of previous restoration work.
Contacts
Address: Oborne Road Sherborne Dorset DT9 3RX
- Telephone: 01963 250 206
- Website: View website
Open Days & Times
16 Mar; 27 Apr; 11 May; 8 Jun; 20 Jul; 9-10 Aug; 6-7 Sep; 19 Oct 1130-1530. Visit website for more details.
Travel
- By Rail: Sherborne / 1 mile
Facilities
- Parking
- Refreshments
- Part disabled access
Houses an extensive collection of Victorian engineering. Central to the display is the massive, 26ft diameter waterwheel built in 1869, which features the system of ventilated buckets designed by William Fairbairn, now fully restored to working order.
Visitors can see the wheel driving a twin cylinder pumpset built in 1883 by Sparrow's of Martock for a local tannery, and a Hindley steam engine similar to the one originally installed to supplement the water supply provided by the waterwheel housed in a new building.
Also on display are the very substantial remains of the Nether Cerne Manor Waterwheel. This wheel was built for Nether Cerne Manor by Maggs of Bourton in 1819 and is certainly one of the oldest all iron waterwheels that remain in England.
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