ALRESFORD Museum opened its doors to visitors for the first time over the two days of its heritage weekend.

And the event, on September 15-16, attracted more than 200 visitors to admire the vintage steam fire engine now in residence.

The sun glistened on the freshly polished brass of the engine which had been returned, in August, to its former home at the Old Fire Station at the bottom of Broad Street.

One of the old Merryweather steam pump appliances, built in the 1890s and similar to that operating in Alresford in the early part of the 20th Century, the fire engine will not have travelled far over the last 100 years as it was originally used on the Tichborne Park Estate and for many years it has been housed at the fire station on Pound Hill-

It was transferred to the newly refurbished Broad Street fire station which was built in 1881 and housed the town’s fire brigade and their equipment up until 1938 when the new fire station was completed.

The Old Fire Station is owned by the New Alresford Town Trust, which has refurbished the original part of the building that formed the fire station to house the new museum.

Roy Gentry, Trust chairman, said: “The number of visitors and the interest shown far exceeded my expectations bearing in mind we were only open for two hours each afternoon.”

During the opening, the Trust also received donations of objects to display, as well as an almost new 32” flat-screen television which will be used to present a slide show of old pictures of Alresford, plus donations of £120 which will go toward the development of the museum.

Mr Gentry added: “Over the winter months, we will be working on the display of other artefacts that tell the story of Alresford over the centuries.”

He thanked everyone who had donated items and funding, with special thanks for the financial support from Hellards Estate Agents, saying: “We hope to be able to open our doors in early spring as a more comprehensive local museum.”

Because of the level of interest, the New Alresford Town Trust will be opening the museum again on ’Alresford Apple Day’ next Saturday (October 13), from noon to 4pm, to enable more visitors to see the old steamer fire engine in its new home.