[6][7] While building the North Midland Railway from Derby to Rotherham and Leeds, Stephenson had found rich coal seams in the Clay Cross area and he saw a new business opportunity.

Cliff Quarry, where the museum is now located, was acquired by Stephenson's company and to link the quarry with limekilns he had built at Ambergate, Stephenson constructed a 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) gauge line – apparently the first metre gauge railway in the world.

Stephenson lived the last 10 years of his life in Chesterfield, often bringing visitors to Crich to see the mineral railway.

A group of enthusiasts on a farewell tour of Southampton Tramways in August 1948 decided to purchase one of the open top trams on which they had ridden.

From the original group developed the Tramway Museum Society, established in 1955, incorporated as a company limited by guarantee in 1962, and recognised as an educational charity in 1963.

[10] After a sustained search across the country, in 1959 the society's attention was drawn to the then derelict limestone quarry at Crich in Derbyshire, from which members of the Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society were recovering track from Stephenson's mineral railway for their pioneering preservation project in Wales.

After a tour of the quarry, members of the society agreed to lease – and later purchase – part of the site and buildings.

[7][19] Amongst the buildings and furniture in the street are: One of the few buildings on the site that predate the creation of the museum and are in their original place, the Stephenson Workshop was built in the 19th century and was used as a smithy and wagon works for George Stephenson's metre gauge mineral railway.

It also describes how overcrowding in expanding towns and cities paved the way for in the introductions of trams to Britain in the 19th century.

A modern glass bridge from the upper floor provides access to the viewing gallery of the tram workshop (see below).

[20][26] The tram depot is situated at the further end of the museum's Period Street, just before it passes under the Bowes-Lyon Bridge.

The bridge deck is constructed in cast iron and dates from 1844, when it was installed at the Bowes-Lyon Estate in St Paul's Walden, Hertfordshire.

While now largely rural, this valley was one of the cradles of the Industrial Revolution, where the modern factory system was introduced during the 18th century to take advantage of Richard Arkwright's invention of the water frame for spinning cotton.

Tree cover is mostly ash, but also includes sycamore, alder and silver birch, with a shrub layer of hazel, wych elm, wild rose, elder and hawthorn.

The combination of the ash canopy and limestone results in a range of ground-cover plants including primrose, early purple orchid, cowslip, marjoram, garlic and strawberries.

Such sculptures do not last forever, with wood splitting, fungi and the claws of badgers all contributing to their deterioration.

From Town End, about the first 500 metres (1,600 ft) of line is double track, laid in a setted street, flanked by the buildings of the recreated period village, and including the inbound-only Stephenson Place tram stop.

[7] The tramway has a 1969 tram from Berlin, which has been converted to allows visitors with disabilities to travel the line, with the provision of a wheelchair lift and wider doors.

The museum's overhead wire system has been built so that trams with any of those types of current collection can be used.

[50] The nearest railway station is Whatstandwell, on the Derwent Valley Line from Derby to Matlock, from which there is a steep uphill walk of about 1 mile (1.6 km) to the museum.