North East Land, Sea and Air Museums

Nestled on the former RAF Usworth and Sunderland Airport site in Tyne and Wear, NELSAM is a volunteer-run transport museum tracing over 100 years of military and civilian heritage. Visitors explore three main hangars and themed buildings housing aircraft, engines, military vehicles, trams and a recreated WWII home-front street scene.

The museums boast an amazing array of items and well worth a visit. Special exhibits spotlight the Cold War jet collection—Avro Vulcan B.2 XL319 and English Electric Lightning F.53—alongside the life-sized blitz street scene, a tribute display to 607 (County of Durham) Squadron RAF, and the preserved nose section of a Handley Page Trident airliner cockpit.

The website has a wealth of detail about individual exhibits, and worth a read.

Facilities include free on-site parking, disabled parking bays and wheelchair-accessible pathways, ramps and toilets, induction-loop hearing assistance, a museum shop stocking books, models and light refreshments, a fenced children’s play area, picnic spots and guided tours with cockpit walkthroughs available by arrangement. Dogs on leads are welcome throughout the site.

While in the North east of the UK, you might like to visit the National Museum of the Royal Navy, Hartlepool.

Photo Credit: Alan Wilson