About
Lutterworth and District Museum is a volunteer-run collection in the centre of a small south Leicestershire market town that has, improbably, been the setting for two events of genuine world significance. The first was theological: John Wycliffe, rector of Lutterworth from 1374 until his death in 1384, oversaw the first complete translation of the Bible from Latin into English, an act that helped set in motion the Reformation and that led, decades after his death, to his body being exhumed and burned and the ashes thrown into the River Swift. The second was mechanical, and took place in a factory on the edge of town.
In 1937 Frank Whittle's company, Power Jets, established itself at Lutterworth, and it was here that the first British turbojet engine was developed, bench-tested and made to work. Whittle's insight, patented in 1930 while he was a young RAF officer and largely ignored for a decade, changed aviation more completely than any development since powered flight itself. The museum holds a Whittle W2/700 jet engine along with associated material, and it presents the story of Power Jets with the seriousness it warrants, including the frustration, official indifference and eventual nationalisation that characterised Whittle's dealings with the state.
Alongside these two headline stories the museum does the ordinary work of a good local collection thoroughly. There is Roman and Saxon material from the surrounding parishes, displays on the town's medieval and market history, a notable section on Lutterworth's clockmakers, and objects covering the trades, shops, schools and social life of the town across several centuries. A Merlin engine from a wartime Hurricane sits alongside the Whittle material, making an effective point about the technological transition the town helped to bring about.
The museum occupies premises on Market Street and is staffed and run entirely by volunteers, which shapes its opening hours: Thursday to Sunday, with a shorter Sunday afternoon. It is free to enter, compact enough to see properly in an hour, and considerably more interesting than the size of the town would lead anyone to expect.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- The museum opens Thursday to Sunday. Sunday starts later, at one o'clock, and everything shuts at half past three.
- Admission is free, and the museum is compact enough to see properly in an hour, which makes it an easy stop off the M1.
- Look at the Whittle jet engine and the Merlin together rather than separately. The comparison between them is the single best thing in the museum.
- Walk to St Mary's Church afterwards, four minutes away, where Wycliffe was rector and from beside which his ashes were thrown into the Swift.
- Ask the volunteers about Power Jets. Local knowledge of the Whittle story here goes well beyond what is on the display panels.
- The museum is run entirely by volunteers, so confirm by email before making a long journey specifically to visit.
- Park in one of the town centre car parks, as there is no parking at the museum itself on Market Street.
- Combine the visit with Stanford Hall, six kilometres away, which has its own aviation connection in the Percy Pilcher memorial.
Highlights
The Whittle W2/700 Jet Engine
The museum's outstanding object is a Whittle W2/700 turbojet, a development engine from the programme that gave Britain jet propulsion.
Standing in front of one, the thing that registers is how comprehensible it is: a compressor, combustion chambers arranged around the shaft, a turbine, and an exhaust. Whittle's contribution was not a mysterious invention but the recognition that this arrangement could work and the persistence to prove it against a decade of official scepticism.
That the engine sits in the town where the work was done gives it a weight that a national museum display cannot match.
Power Jets at Lutterworth
Frank Whittle's company Power Jets established itself at Lutterworth in 1937, and the first British turbojet was developed and bench-tested here before flying in the Gloster E. 28/39 in 1941. The museum tells this story through documents, photographs, components and personal material, including the difficult relationship between Whittle and a government that first ignored him, then took a controlling interest, and finally nationalised the company.
It is a considerably less triumphal account than the standard version, and better for it.
John Wycliffe
John Wycliffe was rector of Lutterworth from 1374 until his death in 1384, and it was during those years that the first complete translation of the Bible from Latin into English was carried through under his direction. The consequences were enormous and long-lasting: his followers, the Lollards, were persecuted for generations, and in 1428, more than forty years after his death, his body was exhumed and burned and the ashes cast into the River Swift.
The displays set out his theology, his influence on Jan Hus and the Reformation, and his connection to the town.
The Merlin Engine
Beside the jet material sits a Rolls-Royce Merlin recovered from a wartime Hurricane, and the juxtaposition is the most effective piece of interpretation in the building. The Merlin was the culmination of piston aero-engine development, a supremely refined machine that powered the Spitfire, Hurricane, Lancaster and Mosquito.
Within a few years of its finest hour, the far simpler-looking engine developed a mile away had made it obsolete.
Seeing the two together makes the scale and speed of that transition immediately clear.
Collections
The collection documents Lutterworth and its surrounding parishes, with two holdings of national significance. The first covers Frank Whittle and Power Jets, established in the town in 1937, including a Whittle W2/700 turbojet, components, documents and photographs from the development of the first British jet engine, displayed alongside a Rolls-Royce Merlin recovered from a wartime Hurricane.
The second covers John Wycliffe, rector from 1374 to 1384, under whom the first complete English translation of the Bible was made.
Other holdings include Roman and Saxon archaeology from the district, examples of local clockmaking, and material on the town's markets, trades, shops, schools and social life.
Whittle and the Jet Age
The W2/700 engine, Power Jets at Lutterworth and the development of British jet propulsion.
Wycliffe and the English Bible
John Wycliffe's years as rector, the first English Bible translation and its consequences.
The Town and District
Roman and Saxon finds, clockmaking, markets, trades and social life in Lutterworth.
Themes
Time Periods
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.