Privacy Policy
How we collect and use personal information, and the rights you have.
Who we are
The Crossness Engines Trust is the data controller for this website. We are a registered charity (no. 297585) and a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales (no. 02141756). We run Crossness Pumping Station as a museum and heritage site.
The Old Works
Thames Water S. T. W.
Bazalgette Way
London SE2 9AQ
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: +44 (0)20 8311 3711
Also see our Contact page.
The Board of Trustees is responsible for this notice. We have not appointed a separate Data Protection Officer. Day to day questions go to the address above.
In short
- We use your details to reply to you, run visits, process gifts and memberships and (if you ask) send news.
- We sometimes invite you to a short visitor survey after a visit.
- We do not sell your personal information.
- Card payments are handled by Stripe. Tickets are sold on a separate site run with Visisoft.
- You can ask for a copy of your information, have it corrected or object to some uses. You can also complain to the ICO.
This notice covers crossness.org.uk, the forms, donations and newsletter on it, and our visitor survey. It was last updated on 12 August 2026.
What we collect
Most of what we hold is information you choose to give us. Depending on the form or booking, that can include:
- name and organisation
- email address, phone number and postal address
- visit dates, group size and what you would like to see or book
- messages you send us
- donation amount, Gift Aid declaration and membership details
- volunteer interest, skills and availability
- visitor survey answers (how you heard about us, travel, ratings and optional equality questions)
If you tell us about access needs so we can plan a visit, we use that only to support your visit. We treat it as sensitive information.
When you use the website we also receive technical information such as your IP address, browser type and pages viewed. Some of that sits in server logs. Some of it only appears if you accept analytics or marketing cookies.
We do not store payment card numbers on this website. Stripe processes card donations. Visisoft processes ticket payments on tickets.crossness.org.uk (opens in a new tab).
How we use it
UK law asks us to name a lawful basis for each use. In plain English, these are the ones we rely on:
- Contract: we need the information to do something you have asked for, such as a booked visit, membership or donation.
- Legal obligation: the law requires us to keep a record, such as Gift Aid for HMRC.
- Consent: you have said yes, such as joining the newsletter or accepting optional cookies.
- Legitimate interests: we have a genuine reason that does not override your rights, such as answering a message or keeping the website secure. You can object.
Answering your messages
We use contact, learning, research, volunteer, venue and visit forms so the right person can reply.
Lawful basis: legitimate interests. If we are arranging a paid visit or hire, we also rely on contract.
Tickets and visits
Public tickets are sold on our separate ticketing site. Visisoft collects the booking there. Their privacy notice applies to that purchase. We receive the names, ticket types, dates and any access notes we need to run your visit.
Group or private tours, learning visits and photography bookings often start on a form on this site.
Lawful basis: contract (and legitimate interests for the operational details we need on the day).
Donations, Gift Aid and membership
We use your details to take a gift, thank you, claim Gift Aid where you have asked us to and administer membership.
Lawful basis: contract for the gift or membership. Legal obligation for Gift Aid and charity accounting records.
Volunteering
We use application details to follow up, match people to roles and keep volunteers safe on site.
Lawful basis: legitimate interests and, once you volunteer with us, the volunteering arrangement. We may also have a legal obligation for insurance or safeguarding.
Newsletter
If you sign up, MailerLite sends open-day dates, events and stories. Every email has an unsubscribe link. MailerLite also records whether an email was opened or a link was clicked, so we know what is useful.
Lawful basis: consent.
Running and improving the website
We use hosting logs to keep the site secure. With your consent we also use analytics to understand which pages help visitors. We record that someone clicked Book or finished a form. We do not send the words you type in a form to analytics.
Analytics copies (without your name or email) are stored in Google Cloud in London so we can see patterns over time. When we run charity Search ads (Google Ad Grants) we may also measure whether an ad led to a useful action, such as a book click or signup.
Marketing cookies (including Meta) only run if you accept them. If you are logged into Facebook or Instagram, Meta may link a visit to your account. We use that to see whether our posts and ads worked. We do not upload our mailing list to Meta.
Lawful basis: legitimate interests for security and essential site functions. Consent for non-essential analytics and advertising cookies.
We do not use solely automated decisions that have a legal or similarly significant effect on you.
Visitor survey
After a visit we may invite you to a short survey. It is voluntary. You can skip any question you do not want to answer.
The survey asks how you heard about us, how you travelled, who you came with, what you thought of the day and whether you would recommend us. Optional questions cover first-half postcode (for example SE2), age group, gender, ethnicity, disability and occupation. You may also leave a comment, give an email for future events or say you are interested in volunteering.
We use the answers to improve visits and to understand who we reach. Staff and relevant volunteers can read comments and contact details. We use the rest as anonymous totals for planning. We do not use survey answers to target ads at you.
Questions about ethnicity, disability and similar topics are optional. We treat those answers as sensitive and use them only as totals. If you give an email for news, we add it to MailerLite only for that purpose.
The survey runs on Microsoft Forms. Microsoft’s own notice applies to how they host the form.
Lawful basis: legitimate interests for understanding the visit. Consent if you give an email for news or ask us to follow up about volunteering.
How long we keep it
We keep information only as long as we need it for the purpose above, or as the law requires. Our current practice is:
- General enquiries: usually up to 24 months after we last heard from you.
- Visit and booking details we hold: the visit date plus 12 months, unless a finance record needs longer.
- Donations, Gift Aid and membership finance records: 6 years after the end of the relevant tax year (HMRC).
- Volunteer records: while you volunteer with us, then usually up to 2 years, or longer if we must keep them for legal reasons.
- Newsletter: until you unsubscribe. We then keep your address on a suppression list so we do not email you by mistake.
- Website security logs: a short period, usually no more than 90 days, unless we are investigating a problem.
- Analytics: as set in those tools, typically no more than 14 months. Anonymous yearly totals may be kept longer.
- Visitor survey: identifiable answers (email, comments) usually up to 24 months. Anonymous totals we keep to compare years.
Ticket records held by Visisoft follow their retention rules.
Transfers outside the UK
Some of the organisations above may process information outside the UK. That can include Google, Meta, Stripe and MailerLite.
Where that happens we look for a lawful safeguard, such as a UK adequacy decision or the UK International Data Transfer Agreement (or equivalent clauses). Email us if you would like more detail about a particular provider.
Your rights
You can ask us to:
- give you a copy of the personal information we hold about you (access)
- correct information that is wrong or incomplete
- delete information in some cases
- restrict how we use it in some cases
- object to uses based on legitimate interests, and to direct marketing at any time
- move certain information to you or another organisation (data portability), where we use it by consent or contract and the processing is automated
Email [email protected]. We may need to check who you are before we reply. We will respond within one month in the usual case.
How to withdraw consent
If we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time. That does not affect anything we did while we still had your consent.
- Newsletter: use the unsubscribe link in any email, or email us.
- Cookies: use the cookie settings control on this site, or clear cookies in your browser.
- Survey email or volunteering follow-up: email us and we will stop using that contact for that purpose.
- Anything else we asked consent for: email [email protected].
16 or under
If you are 16 or under, please get a parent or guardian’s permission before you send us personal information.
How to complain
Please contact us first so we can try to put things right. You also have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
Make a complaint to the ICO (opens in a new tab)
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF
How we look after it
We take reasonable technical and organisational steps to protect personal information. No website is completely secure. Please use a strong unique password for any account you hold with a third party linked from this site.
We may photograph public open days and events. If you would rather not appear, tell a volunteer on the day.
Updates to this notice
We will update this page when our tools or the law change. The latest version is always the one published here.
Owner: Board of Trustees, Crossness Engines Trust
Last updated: 12 August 2026
Next planned review: August 2027, or sooner if we change a provider.