Over four hundred British cars in two buildings on sixty-five acres of Warwickshire, held by a charitable trust and shown with the storage and the restoration work in plain view.
At a glance
- Type
- Motor museum, Designated collection
- Opened
- May 1993, as the Heritage Motor Centre
- Renamed
- British Motor Museum, 2015; relaunched 13 February 2016
- Collection
- Over 400 British classic cars across two buildings
- Held by
- British Motor Industry Heritage Trust, registered charity no. 286575
- Grounds
- 65 acres, about 26 hectares
Overview
The museum opened in May 1993, purpose-built because the collection had outgrown its earlier homes at Studley in Warwickshire and Syon Park in London. It was called the Heritage Motor Centre until a refurbishment costing 1.1 million pounds and the award of Designated status prompted the change of name in 2015; it relaunched as the British Motor Museum on 13 February 2016.
The cars come from two charitable collections shown together: the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust, whose stated object is to establish and maintain a motor vehicle museum for the benefit of the nation, and the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust.
History
The site is a former airfield in south Warwickshire that became a proving ground and technical centre for the British motor industry, and the museum was built on it. The collection it houses is the record of an industry that has largely gone: the marques of Austin, Morris, MG, Riley, Wolseley, Rover, Land Rover, Triumph, Jaguar and Daimler, kept together rather than dispersed.
A second building opened in November 2015, funded by a Heritage Lottery grant with Jaguar Land Rover, the Garfield Weston Foundation and the two heritage trusts. The Collections Centre holds the reserve collections of both trusts and shows them as they are kept, with the storage racking and the restoration bays open to view.
What you see
The main museum sets out the story chronologically, from the earliest British motor cars to the concept vehicles that never reached production, with royal cars, record breakers and the family saloons that most British households actually owned.
The Collections Centre is the other half of the visit and the more unusual one. Cars stand in rows on the racking where they live, without display staging, and the conservation work is visible rather than hidden. Free guided tours run in both buildings each day.
Practical information
- Address: Banbury Road, Gaydon, Warwick CV35 0BJ
- Open: museum 10:00–17:00, Collections Centre 11:00–17:00, last admission 16:00; seven days a week except 24–27 December and 31 December–1 January
- Free tours included: museum 11:00 and 14:00; Collections Centre 12:00 and 15:00
- Tickets: adult £18 in advance, £21 on the day; child 5–16 £9 and £10; under-5s free; concession £16 and £19; carers free
- Any ticket upgrades to an annual pass free of charge through Gift Aid
- Official site: britishmotormuseum.co.uk
Sources
- British Motor Museum, the story of the museum — britishmotormuseum.co.uk
- British Motor Museum, admission and opening times
- Charity Commission for England and Wales, British Motor Industry Heritage Trust, registered charity no. 286575
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