2026 Opening dates and times:

Spring Season

Saturday 14th March – Thursday 23rd July (Closed Fridays except for Derbyshire school holidays).

10am -5.30pm (last admissions 4pm)

10am – 4.30pm (last admissions 3pm)

Friday 24th July – Monday 31st August (Open daily)

10am -5.30pm (last admissions 4pm)

10am – 4.30pm (last admissions 3pm)

Tuesday 1st September – Sunday 1st November (Closed Fridays except for 30th October)

10am -5.30pm (last admissions 4pm)

10am – 4.30pm (last admissions 3pm)

Contact the Education Team

To contact the Learning Department for more details or to book activities use.

Winners of the Sanford Award for Heritage

Education 2021-2026

Life in a Suitcase

Tram driver trying on new uniform

Life in a Suitcase Session Information

  • Suitable For KS2
  • Session Length 45-60 minutes
  • Cost £2.00 per child

What was life like as a Tram driver in the early 1900s? With our educator in role in our Learning Centre, travel back to around the year 1910 and delve into the suitcase of a tram worker. Discover the uniforms drivers and conductors had to where, learn about how trams were driven, solve monetary problems and delve into the strict rules drivers and conductors faced. Children will be encouraged to think about how jobs have changed, issues faced and consider if it was the job for them! Using real artefacts and some children to help with demonstrations, the museum led session will enable your pupils to think about the lives of those employed on the tramway.

Objectives:

  • Children will be able to explain some of the similarities and differences between jobs in Britain in the Edwardian period through the First World War.
  • Children will begin to develop an understanding of change, workers’ rights and make connections with their own lives.

National Curriculum Links

History

Key Stage 2

  • a study of an aspect or theme in British history that extends pupils’ chronological knowledge beyond 1066
  • a significant turning point in British history, for example, the first railways or the Battle of Britain

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