19Sep
Vintage Excavator Trust Autumn Working Weekend at Threlkeld Quarry
Threlkeld Quarry & Mining Museum, Threlkeld · Cumbria
Plant Sat 19 – Sun 20 Sep 2026
Photo: ARG_Flickr · CC BY 2.0
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Working Weekends & Vintage Excavators
Next up: Vintage Excavator Trust Autumn Working Weekend at Threlkeld Quarry — Sat 19 – Sun 20 Sep 2026, Cumbria.
A working weekend is the difference between a museum and a spectacle: the machines dig. The Vintage Excavator Trust runs them at Threlkeld Quarry & Mining Museum, just off the A66 east of Keswick, with the autumn working weekend on 19 and 20 September 2026 and the spring one following in May 2027. Steam navvies, vintage face shovels and draglines work a real quarry face, which is what they were built for and what a static display can never show you.
A steam navvy, if you have not met one, is a steam-powered excavator, the machine that dug the cuttings and docks that pick-and-shovel navvies could not. Threlkeld holds the Vintage Excavator Trust's collection, machines of a kind you will struggle to see moving anywhere else in Britain, and on working weekends the quarry fills with smoke, clank and the smell of hot oil. Entry is normal museum admission, £9.50 for adults and £5.50 for under 16s, which also covers the mining museum and the narrow gauge railway.
Dress for a quarry: proper boots, layers, and ear defenders for small children when the steam machines are in full cry. It is Cumbria, so assume at least one shower. The digging carries on regardless, which is rather the point.
September 2026
Awaiting dates
TBCMay
Vintage Excavator Trust Spring Working Weekend 2027 at Threlkeld Quarry
Threlkeld Quarry & Mining Museum, Threlkeld · Cumbria
PlantThese run most years but the next date is not announced yet. We check weekly and date them the moment organisers confirm. Get the weekly email and you will not miss it.
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Working Weekends: your questions answered
What is a steam navvy?
A steam-powered excavator, the machine that mechanised digging in the late 1800s. The name comes from the navvies, the labourers who cut Britain's canals and railways by hand, because one machine did the work of a whole gang. Threlkeld's working weekends are the place to watch one dig.
When are the Threlkeld working weekends?
The autumn working weekend runs 19 and 20 September 2026, and the Vintage Excavator Trust's spring working weekend follows in May 2027. Both are held at Threlkeld Quarry & Mining Museum near Keswick in Cumbria, with machines working both days.
How much does a working weekend cost?
Normal museum admission covers it: £9.50 for adults and £5.50 for under 16s at Threlkeld. That includes the quarry, the mining museum and the narrow gauge railway, so it stretches to a full day out without trying.
Can children get close to the machines?
Close enough to feel the ground move, from marked viewing areas at a safe distance. This is genuinely working machinery on a live quarry face, so the barriers matter and so do ear defenders for little ones. The narrow gauge railway is a good pressure valve between digging sessions.
What should I wear to Threlkeld?
Boots you do not mind ruining, plus waterproofs. It is a quarry in the Lake District, so underfoot ranges from dusty to properly claggy depending on the week, and September weather does what it likes. The machines run whatever falls out of the sky.
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