Inside Milestones

Milestones is packed full of the things that ordinary people used in the past. Those people had to go to work, wash their clothes, eat, sleep, and have fun exactly as we do today - but the things they used were sometimes very different from what we use now. Milestones gives us an idea of what it might have been like to live in the past. And our ancestors would recognise the things here because they are the actual things they used. No doubt you will recognise some of them. Maybe you still have them!

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  Home Technology

  Everything from tin openers to cookers and fridges can be found in Collections Corner. A must for anyone looking for a nostalgic view of the things we used in the past. This extensive collection is regularly featured on national TV.

   

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  Home Entertainment

  Listen to the best-known tunes from the past from real 78s played on real gramophones from the 1930s. Do you have a favourite tune? Our knowledgeable shopkeeper will do her best to find it for you in her wide-ranging collection!

   

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  Thornycroft

  Tens of thousands of people were employed at the huge Thornycroft factory in Basingstoke. Some of the vehicles they built are on display in a building that includes machinery from the original works. More about Thornycroft.

   

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  The Tasker Collection

  Gleaming Tasker steam engines and agricultural machinery help tell the story of this former Hampshire manufacturer. Some can be found in a reconstruction of the company's Anna Valley Ironworks, and others at the Agricultural Showground. More about Taskers.

   

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  Woolmer Steam Locomotive

  Built in 1910 by the Avonside company of Bristol for the Longmoor Military Railway and worked until 1954.

   

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  Steam on the Farm

  Find out about farming in the 19th century and how two Hampshire agricultural engineers responded to the opportunities offered by steam, how steam engines work and what you need to do to make them go. Download Steam on the Farm 542kb pdf