Commemorating James Watt’s Bicentenary at Hereford’s Waterworks Museum

Each August Bank Holiday Hereford’s Waterworks Museum celebrates a key water industry technology and this year, on Sunday 25th and Monday 26th August, the Museum will celebrate the life and work of the great inventor and steam pioneer James Watt.

Housed within Hereford’s Victorian water-pumping station, the Waterworks Museum will be open with all engines on display working. The jewel in the crown is an 1895 Worth Mackenzie triple expansion engine steam engine, which is the oldest in situ engine of its kind still working in Britain,  Join us to see the power of the engines first hand, and to learn about the fascinating story of the history of water.

Museum exhibits, many of which are among the last working examples of their kind, tell important stories about each of Herefordshire’s market towns, and also of public water supply in Wales, the Marches and further afield.

In addition to James Watt’s great influence on the development of steam, he had strong links to the Wye Valley.  At the start of the 19th century Watt bought a number of  farms along the banks of the River Wye in Radnorshire in Wales, where he built a summer home. Later, his son extended the property at Doldowlod, which was later lived in by several generations of his family, and until they were donated to Birmingham City Library was the home of the James Watt archive.

Visitors can picnic in the grounds, have fun in the hands-on children’s outdoor exhibit – the Heritage Water Park, and learn about the impact of public health improvements which came with the provision of clean drinking water to people’s taps.

For more information visit https://www.waterworksmuseum.org.uk/