Great West Way® Travel Magazine | Issue 01

Head a little further upstream and you will come to the
Maidenhead Heritage Centre where you can both trace the
two thousand years of the town’s history and, unforgettably
for enthusiasts of all ages, ‘fly’ in a WWII Spitfire simulator.
Although in a less rural setting, the town of Reading has many
visitor attractions. Reading Museum, is full of fascinating
regional history and artefacts, a 70-metre long, woven
replica of the famous Bayeux Tapestry and the Huntley &
Palmer exhibition, reflecting on the 150 years of local biscuit
manufacture. The Museum of English Rural Life is where
agriculture, through the ages, is brilliantly brought to life
with interactive exhibits as well as comprehensive displays
of implements, machinery and vehicles, and the new Abbey
Galleries are a great introduction to exploring the ruins of
Reading Abbey and finding out more about Henry I, England’s
last ‘unfound’ king. We think there really is ‘something for
everyone, of all ages’ in our selection so far, but there are
even more, large and small, to consider. In Newbury is the
West Berkshire Museum, a treasure trove of information
and exhibits illustrating the origins of the county and
its people. By contrast, just a few miles further west, in
Wiltshire, is a pair of remarkable survivors from the early
days of the Industrial Revolution. The Crofton Beam
Engines were built over 200 years ago to maintain waterlevels
in the nearby Kennet & Avon Canal and, amazingly,
those great steam engines are still in working order, doing
the job for which they were designed!
Negotiating the pretty lanes of the Vale of Pewsey
brings the happy traveller to Devizes, home of the
independent craft brewers, Wadworth Brewery, and of the
county’s Wiltshire Museum, telling the 500,000 years
story of the county through its award-winning galleries,
exhibits, high-quality graphics and striking reconstructions.
In order to maximise their enjoyment, visitors en route to
such prehistoric sites as Avebury and Stonehenge are urged
to visit this museum first.
And in Wiltshire’s county town, one museum to watch
for the future is the Trowbridge Museum, offering insight
into the rich textile related heritage in the heart of the
town. Currently the museum is undergoing a fantastic
multi-million pound expansion, which will see the museum
double in size for its 2020 re-opening!
Moving forward in time, the history of 19th and 20th
century steam railways is retold at STEAM - Museum of
the Great Western Railway and, if historic aeroplanes
are a ‘must-see’ for you or your children, you need look no
further than the Boscombe Down Aviation Collection
at Old Sarum, Salisbury, where cockpits are mostly open
60 GreatWestWay.co.uk