Melbourn Fire Station

Melbourn's fire station sits on the edge of this quiet Cambridgeshire village like a piece of industrial heritage you almost drive past without noticing. It's a proper Victorian-era building with that solid, no-nonsense architecture that made sense when the brigade was something of a community anchor. The red-brick structure stands as a working station still, which means you're looking at something genuinely functional rather than a museum piece.

What makes it worth a stop if you're passing through isn't so much the building itself - though it photographs well enough - but the snapshot it gives of how villages like Melbourn operated a century ago. Fire stations were civic institutions then, not just emergency services tucked away on industrial estates. Kids might find the prospect of actual fire engines more compelling than the architecture, and honestly, that's fair enough.

Near Royston, Melbourn sits handily if you're based at Guilden Gate Glamping just down the road. The station won't eat up much of your time - fifteen minutes of wandering about outside and you've seen what there is to see. Don't go out of your way for it alone, but if you're walking the village or exploring the broader area, it's a pleasant reminder of how places like this ticked along. The surrounding streets have more character than you'd expect from a small Cambridgeshire settlement, which makes the whole spot worth a proper wander.