Bressingham announces new series of Inside the Steam Museum on Channel 5

A much-loved Norfolk steam museum will be hitting our screens again this month for a second series going behind the scenes of the site.

Bressingham Steam Museum has announced it will be back on the TV on June 23 for another season of Inside the Steam Train Museum on Channel 5.

The first series, which aired in 2020 during lockdown, was a big hit with audiences and on the back of that Norfolk-based production company Firepit Media was commissioned to make another with filming taking place in 2021 and 2022.

Phillip Rooke, the site’s general manager, said the four episodes will show faces old and new of the site’s passionate staff and volunteers, restoration projects and how they all kept the wheels turning in the museum’s 60th anniversary year.

As an idea of what viewers can expect, he added: “In episode one, the museum will prepare for its anniversary steam gala event, and encounter a few problems along the way.”

Bressingham in its current form began in 1946, when Alan Bloom purchased Bressingham Hall and within a decade of ownership he had established the successful gardens and nursery business which remains today.

But Mr Bloom had a growing passion for trains and, in 1961, he purchased his first traction engine - a Burrell model called Bertha.

By 1962 he had collected 14 engines and, three years later, the first of the narrow gauge railway tracks was laid on the estate, creating the two-foot garden railway which opened in 1966.

Over the years, the attraction has become one of Norfolk’s most popular days out and currently boasts four railway lines winding through magnificent gardens.

Inside the Steam Train Museum will be back on Channel 5 on June 23.