Amberley Museum is due to be full of emergency services vehicles and people this weekend. Some of them are cuter and more controllable than others.

#AdoorableThursday A surprisingly elegant door for the Municipal Engine House. The House was built around a Robey engine used to pump sewage into the sea in Littlehampton over a century ago. We have to take the roof off if we need to extract the engine...

We've reached 600 followers! This makes us very happy. 😁

We have a lot of crows nesting on site. That's our defence for reposting this.

You really never know what you're going to find next! We discovered this brick in our Brick Drying Shed, which intrigued us for obvious reasons. No one actually seems to know but such bricks seem to have been made by Stanley Brothers of Nuneaton, who dated back to the 1700s!

This is Nevil Maskelyne, history's first hacker. In 1903, he disrupted a demonstration of Marconi's wireless transmission by sending 'Rats! Rats! Rats!' Now we know where other people got the idea! #hacker #marconi

Our Wheelwrights have been mocking up a quarter-size wheelbarrow ready to make a half-size for our younger/smaller visitors to try out. With something this small, they have to be inventive about the actual wheel...

It's often difficult to find something for #FindsFriday, especially as other peoples' finds are usually excavated. However, we found... THESE! Wheelbarrow wheels. Late 19th century. Bet not many other places can claim similar finds!

RANDOM FACTOID: From: MerriamWebster When movies were shot on physical film, the film was measured in feet. This is why any recorded thing is now called 'footage.'

It takes a lot of teabags to keep over 400 volunteers happy! #internationalteaday #teabags #cupoftea

No more needs to be said.

Every so often, a story comes up in the museum community which reminds us of just how fragile the protection of our past is. As the writer says, this is not a reflection on the archaeological unit involved but a damnation of the influential powers. theurbanprehistorian.wordpress.com/2026/05/19/b...

#WorldBeeDay We've had not one but two visiting swarms of bees recently! Fortunately, they were very good natured and bee-haved themselves perfectly. They've now bee-n rehomed by the Bognor Beekeepers 😍

ITD in 1912, a new automated telephone exchange was installed in Epsom to connect 250 homes. It replaced this system with an operator and saw the introduction of telephones with a dial. Less chance of having your conversation overheard...

It's #FindsFriday and we're really quite excited. This was more of a discovery than an official find but, at the back of the engine shed (where else?) was found... THIS!!! The Gods alone know why or how!

We're getting very excited about Finds Friday tomorrow! It isn't often that we have something to show off but our lovely Curator (who very sadly leaves us tomorrow) has found something! 😍🤩

One of those 'Nothing to do with Us' posts but it's too good not to share!

There must be people here who are not only #jamesbond007 fans but particularly like #rogermoore and #aviewtoakill! We have our #JamesBond day on Sunday 24th May, showing off the locations here that were used in the film with the chance to drive the Zorin locomotive and meet some crew members!

I still love the theory a Year 6 child proposed to me that David Attenborough is actually God and he got fed up with people not noticing the amazing things he'd created, so he made documentaries to show off.

It's Us! We're here! We're famous! (almost).

Another of our very practical doors for #AdoorableThursday This is the main door to the Municipal Engine House, which was originally built in Littlehampton around a Robey pumping machine. Like so much of the machinery here, it was built to deal with sewage...

We know when it's definitely Spring at Amberley - the steam engines emerge from hibernation. They don't like the rain, so it has to be a really lovely Spring day when you get a sighting!

This is nothing to do with us. We just think it's magnificent. And would like to bring it to the attention of Brading Roman Villa!

As it's #AdoorableThursday we thought we'd show you another sensible and practical door from our industrial site. This is one of the doors to the Print Shop and Machine Shop, which used to be a stable block, in the days when wagons of chalk were pulled by ponies. 😍

The perfect St George's Day picture.

This is one of our more decorative offerings for #AdoorableThursday We're not actually quite sure what it was used for but it does give onto the lobby area in front of the original chalk pits office. It's also really quite small and narrow, despite its double door pretensions.

Earth Day. We can even do that at Amberley!

Today is #WorldHeritageDay which means that everyone's posts will be full of castles, historic houses, paintings, ceramics and so on. SO we'd just like to remind you that this is heritage as well!

We can't make this relevant to Amberley Museum but a cut-out model of an Etruscan tomb from 1837 is too good not to pass on!

Today is #internationalbatday and we have lots of bats around the site (but sadly, no belfries). However, they are notoriously difficult to photograph so we found these instead.

We know that people have seen the girls before but as it's National Pet Day, we wanted to remind/inform you of the sheer insanity that is Pet Rodents. Fiendishly intelligent, astonishingly destructive, adorably cuddly and remarkably companionable, they are only for the discerning!

We have a new bus! Life doesn't get much more exciting!

It's 8-track Day! We're quite proud that our Creedence Clearwater Revival 8-track is still sealed in its wrapper. These were a good way to while away a long journey...

We're sure @durotrigesdig.bsky.social has one somewhere...

#FindsFriday! We have excavated areas of our industrial site. We don't have chariot wheels but we found these hidden in the de Witt kilns by our railway. Don't get too excited but these are wheelbarrow wheels! About a century old!

Here is a door for #adoorablethursday We don't have grand, decorated doors, being an industrial museum. We have small, everyday, well-used doors. Which are still very much appreciated by those who use them.

This is a Tangye gas engine and the gas producer that powers it. Sir Richard Tangye was a fairly amazing chap who produced the lifting jacks to launch the SS Great Eastern, amongst many other things. We have also enjoyed his name in connection with these two items.

This is the best science video of all time. Admittedly, Amberley Museum has nothing to do with space travel or exploration but the chemistry behind controlled explosions was very relevant to the mining of chalk.

We wonder if he met a certain Mr Marconi?

Not strictly museum-based but we felt it to be relevant in so many ways.

Just in case any paleontologists follow us.

Yesterday was Christopher Walken's birthday. A very Happy Birthday, Mr Walken! Back in 1984, you visited here for a few days to film part of the James Bond film 'A View to a Kill', where we played the outside of Main Strike Mine. #christopherwalken #jamesbond #aviewtoakill

It's #InternationalMermaidDay. Of course. We've done our best but all we could find are our goldfish in a small but historic pond. The pond is actually in the foundations of part of the complex around the De Witt kilns. Suitable for a petite, freshwater mermaid, maybe.

An astonishing amount of the industrial past preserved here at Amberley is related to dealing with sewage. Pumping it, transporting it, raising it; such as the Robey engine housed in this lovely little structure. So, Happy Birthday to Sir Joseph Bazalgette of London's drains!

We've always had difficulty joining in with #FindsFriday as an ex-chalk quarry is not an obvious place. However, our Curator made a discovery. An enamel plate, probably dating from the mid-20th century CE. No visible maker's mark but evidence of extensive use. 😜

We've just discovered a small problem with our life memberships.

Given our last post about the weather, this seems very appropriate!