The museum collection is a varied social history that reflects and celebrates the culture of the county of Lincolnshire and its people from 1750 to the present day.

Exhibits illustrate commercial, domestic, agricultural, industrial and community life.

It thought that it housed one of the first tanks developed during the First World War by the local firm of William Foster & Co. of Lincoln.

The tank was believed to be named "Flirt II", a Mark IV Female; however during the filming of inside the tank for the museum's new digital tour guides, a different serial number was discovered than the one that was expected.

[4] The museum also has exhibits featuring recreations of old shops, house interiors along with an extensive collection of early farm machinery, with examples of machines built by local companies, such as the Field Marshall tractor built in Gainsborough, by Marshall, Sons & Co.[5] Two early Ruston-Bucyrus excavators are on display in the yard, an RB4 of 1929 and an RB17 of 1937.