In the 1840s, when Stephenson was building the North Midland Railway from Derby to Rotherham and Leeds, he found coal buried under the ground on the way to Clay Cross. He decided to mine it and make some money. Crich already had a limestone quarry when he started. Stephenson saw that he could use this limestone and coal to make burnt lime for agricultural use and then use his railway to move it. To link the quarry at Crich to the limekilns at Ambergate, a new metre gauge railway was built, which is said to be the first in the world. The museum is built on part of the old Cliff Quarry, which Stephenson's company bought.