Category Archives: news

We love an anniversary at the Waterworks Museum. What better reason for a celebration and the chance to share the enthusiasm of our volunteers with our visitors.  So while the Museum may be closed currently, we can think of eight good reasons to plan a visit next year. The chance to see five restored and…

In 2007, the summer after the modern Visitor Centre at the Waterworks Museum was opened, we started the practice of inviting the Mayor of Hereford to attend our annual gala day to open a new exhibit or inaugurate a newly displayed pump or engine. This year, disappointingly, sees the first break in this cycle as…

The Herefordshire Water Board was the statutory water undertaker for Herefordshire between the years of 1960 and 1974, and the 60th anniversary of its founding was to have been celebrated at the Waterworks Museum on Founders’ Day (24 May 2020). This celebration was planned because, as explained below, the existence of the Waterworks Museum was…

MEMORIES OF HEREFORD IN WW2 It is incredibly sad the Waterworks Museum is unable to open its doors on 8th May 2020 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day. For the past 14 years the Rotherwas Engine House display has helped visitors to the Waterworks Museum learn about life in Hereford during…

Rather than completely cancelling the Museum's 4th annual Steampunk Festival due to the Covad-19 lockdown, the Directors decided to host a ‘virtual’ Steampunk Festival by issuing a selection of photographs and short videos from previous Steampunk events. Published material also included a video specially recorded for the 2020 festival by conjurer, magician, and storyteller Greg…

The Directors have today taken the unprecedented step of closing the Waterworks Museum until the end of April.  This has been necessary to protect the health and wellbeing of the Museum’s community of Volunteers in the TW wake of the Coronavirus outbreak as a large proportion of volunteers are in the higher risk category for…

2019 was a very successful year for the Hereford Waterworks Museum and 2020 promises to be even better with a range of new events to entertain visitors. The award-winning Waterworks Museum is not just a destination for steam and history enthusiasts -  it is one of Herefordshire’s leading attractions with plenty to interest the whole…

Royal Visitor at Hereford Waterworks Museum On 3rd October volunteers at the Waterworks Museum were delighted to welcome a very special visitor - His Royal Highness, The Duke of Gloucester. The Duke, accompanied by the Lord Lieutenant of Herefordshire, Lady Darnley, spent an hour touring the Museum and chatting with volunteers. The Museum visit was…

Hereford Waterworks Museum Volunteer Wins Prestigious Award On 11 September Alex Rowe, 20, attended an award ceremony at the Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre where he was announced the winner of the West Midlands Museum Development 2019 Volunteer (Young Person) Award. A final year blacksmithing student at Herefordshire & Ludlow College (Holme Lacy), and the Waterworks Museum’s…

Mayor of Hereford opens new display at Waterworks Museum This year’s annual Gala Day at the Waterworks Museum (Sunday 28th July) saw the Mayor of Hereford, Councillor Kath Hey, unveil a plaque to inaugurate a new display with an interesting and unexpected connection to Hereford. The 1911 Hindley ‘Alcazar’ steam engine originally pumped saline water…

Over the weekend of 27th/28th April, the Waterworks Museum came alive with the vibrant sound and colour of Hereford’s third Steampunk Festival and some fantastic family entertainment, which kept visitors enthralled all weekend. Throughout the event, visitors (who included the Mayor of Hereford, Cllr. Sue Boulter) were entertained by brilliant acts of juggling, balance, illusion…

The Hereford & District Preservation Society traditionally makes a pilgrimage to the Waterworks Museum in Hereford on one of the first open days of each new season. This year it was Sunday 14th April, sunny but bitterly cold. Nothing daunted, society members set their engines and vehicles out in exemplary fashion with, as usual, a…