Spalding Flower Bulb Museum

Description:

Inspired by the memories of the people from the South Lincolnshire Fens, the Spalding Flower Bulb Museum was opened in 1995 to preserve the history of the industry for future generations.

Having spanned more than 120 years the bulb industry has played a vital role in the local economy and been a source of employment for thousands of people.

The 50-seat Gardeners Theatre shows a 15-minute film presentation which, along with a series of storyboards and static exhibits, including two vintage tractors and a lifesize model of a Shire horse, together with reconstructed original buildings containing the actual equipment used, all help to recreate the history of an industry unique to the Spalding area.

Other outdoor exhibits include a 1904 flower forcing glasshouse, a Blacksmith's shop, a bulb grading shed and the original Spalding cattle market auction hall with its unique iron girder roof.

The collection includes horse carts, ploughs, bulb graders, weighing scales, sack winders, a gravity fed boiler in a sunken boiler house and hovels full of equipment.

Spalding Flower Bulb Museum is open from 10am to 4pm seven days a week between April 1 and October 31, with winter opening by request. Admission is free although donations are welcome.

There is ample free parking for cars and coaches, toilet facilities, a coffee shop selling snacks, main meals and cream teas, access for disabled and accompanied tours are available for groups of 20 or more.

A school education pack is also available.

Birchgrove also offers a large garden centre and nursery, pet and aquatic centre and an equestrian store.

For more information call 01775 680490.