The topic for our May session was industrial archaeology with a trip out to Westonzoyland Pumping Station Museum on the Somerset Levels.

We started out with a talk by Iain Miles, Honorary President and Archivist of the Westonzoyland Engine Trust about the history of manging flooding on the Somerset Levels from Roman times to the present day.

After this we were taken on a guided tour by Jason Keswick, the manager of the museum.  We started out by looking at the huge original Easton Amos Land Drainage Machine and Jason explained to us how it had been used to drain flood water from the Levels into the River Parrett.  After a short break we then looked around the rest of the museum at all the different types of engines and pumps which had been rescued and restored by the museum.

We finished the day with a ride on the Westonzoyland Light Railway which was great fun!

A big thank you to Jason and Iain and the staff and volunteers at the museum for such a great day out.