All aboard! Rickinghall pair call for support of steam museum

A Rickinghall mother and her train-mad two-year-old daughter are calling on people to help keep their favourite place on track.

Bressingham Steam and Gardens reopened in July and Gillian Ann Nunn, from The Street, and daughter Alicia have already been 10 times.

Ms Nunn said: “Alicia is obsessed with trains, she has had a season ticket with me since she was six weeks old and can’t get enough of it.

“She is learning how the trains and signals work and I am sure she will be a young steamer volunteer there when she is older.”

But due to lockdown the Low Road attraction was unable to start on March 27 and Ms Nunn wants people to come and support it now.

She said: “Every time we drove past when it was closed I had to tell Alicia that the trains were asleep, it is so great to see it open again.

“But having lost half of its summer and restricted to around 60 visitors an hour, it needs everyone’s help as it is such a positive place.”

Bressingham site manager Alastair Baker said it was great to see visitors back and enjoying what they have there.

He said: “The fascination of steam, the movement of the wheel and cogs, the nice slow pace of life and our quirky passionate volunteers are what I think people find so special here.”

Alicia, who can never go to the museum without her teddy, has steam in her blood as her great great grandfather drove steam engines.

The toddler also has a full train set, which her mother says has enough track to go around their kitchen and living room.

The pair hope to get their message out to Ms Nunn’s more than 12,000 Twitter followers, as well as famous train enthusiasts such as Rod Stewart and Pete Waterman.

She said: “I put a post up of Alicia and I at the museum and people commented about their trips there when they were children.

“Do not keep it as a memory, make it a Bressingham summer, I have a future train driver here depending on it.”

To find out more about Bressingham Steam and Gardens, click here.