World of Mechanical Music, Northleach

This is a museum with a difference. At the World of Mechanical Music you will see and hear various kinds of self-playing instruments in a period Victorian setting. With an entertaining and informative guide, you will experience performances of barrel organs, musical boxes, polyphons, automata, phonographs, gramophones and more; and when you listen to our English chamber barrel organ, which was made in 1770, you will hear exactly the same sounds as our inventive ancestors would have enjoyed in their drawing room. These contraptions were the pride and joy of our Great Grandparents and, apart from live performances, were the only way of enjoying music in the home before regular broadcasting started in 1924.

During your guided tour, you will encounter Rachmaniniv, Grieg and Gershwin giving 'live' performances of their own compositions; you will discover 'cabaret' with a performance on our 1920s Berlin café piano; and you will hear the latest in 'hi-fi' from the 1930s on our E.M.G. handmade gramophone. From the tiny singing bird concealed in a snuff box to the mighty Steinway Reproducing Piano, all our musical marvels are expertly maintained in our own workshops.

We stock a large range of automata and books on clocks, musical boxes and mechanical music in our gift shop. Furthermore, many of the beautiful clocks, musical boxes, automata and other self-playing musical instruments on show are for sale.