The museum includes Turbinia, the ship built by Charles Algernon Parsons to test the advantages of using the steam turbine to power ships, which could go up to . It houses the regimental museum for the Light Dragoons (and its antecedent regiments) and the Northumberland Hussars, exploring the human side of 200 years of life in the army. It is a "hands-on" museum designed to interest both children and adults. It also features examples of Joseph Swan's early lightbulbs which were invented on Tyneside.
