Opened in 1987 by H.M. Queen Elizabeth II, the Crewe Heritage Centre was built to commemorate 150 years of the town of Crewe.  In the early 1990s the name changed to the Railway Age to reflect the railway side of the centre's activities which was being given more prominence at that time, but following a change of management in 2007, the decision was taken to return to our original name and to the original aims to reflect the wider aspects of the heritage of the town in addition to its railway history.

As a result you can now see displays from such notable local companies as Mornflake Oats, Bentley and Whitby Morrison, the makers of Ice Cream Vans, plus displays about many of the town's well known buildings and features, not forgetting the town's railway heritage. We also have displays about its namesake town of Crewe, Virginia, USA, itself a railway town which took its name from ours.

Our site is connected to the mainline railway network with the result that we have frequent visiting main line steam locomotives present on site throughout the year as well as our own collection of locomotives and rolling stock.  Our unique location at the junction of the West Coast, North Wales and Manchester lines provides the ideal viewing point from the balcony of North Junction signal box to watch the present day operations on the main line railway network with both passenger and freight readily seen passing our location.

We host numerous special events throughout our main season and at other occasions as well, details of which can be found on this website.