Coventry Transport Museum

Introduction to the 1916 Maudslay Subsidy Chassis Restoration Project

2012-01-20T09:55:00.014Z

One of the major projects currently being undertaken by the Friends of Coventry Transport Museum alongside Museum staff, is the restoration of a 1916 Maudslay Subsidy Chassis.

The Friends of the Museum are recording their work on this project on a separate Maudslay Project Blog, but we asked Curator of Vehicles Christiaan van Schaardenburgh to give an overview of the project so far, for readers of this main Museum blog:

In the period before the First World War, the government set out specifications for lorries for military use. Several commercial vehicle manufacturers actually built these vehicles, including: Daimler, Thorneycroft, AEC and Maudslay. Although they were all different, they were built to the same requirements such as weight, horsepower, dimensions, etc. Different body styles were fitted to these vehicles, depending on their use. Large numbers of these military lorries were sold as surplus at auctions after the Great War.

This particular chassis would have been built by Maudslay at Parkside for the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War. The vehicle is believed to have been used by the War Department on an airfield in the Angus region of Scotland. Four identical Maudslay chassis were purchased by Coventry Corporation Tramways after the war in 1921 for conversion to buses.

The Museum’s 1916 Maudslay Subsidy chassis was acquired by the Museum in August 2000 from a farm in Dundee, for £10,000. The vehicle was mostly complete, but in a totally unrestored condition. The Great War, Model B three-tonner, was last used in the mid 1970s as a holiday home at Crathy on Deeside, and before that it had been a showman’s living van until 1932. It was stored for many years until being sold to the museum.

Ever since the purchase of the Maudslay chassis, the Friends of Coventry Transport Museum have been raising funds for the restoration of the Maudslay. Restoration of the chassis started in July 2007, every Friday a dedicated team of Friends work with the museum’s collections care team on restoring the lorry to its former glory.

Although the chassis is largely complete, because of its long life as a showman’s vehicle and subsequently as a holiday home, almost every component has a significant amount of wear and tear. It is our goal to rescue as much of the original items as possible - rather than just replacing components with newly made examples, we try to repair the original items, this always adds to the authenticity and gives it ‘the right look’ when inspected closely.

The restoration started with making a detailed photographic record, which has already proven invaluable when the re-assembly started. Once a complete condition survey had been written, the Maudslay was completely disassembled into its main components.

Due to the impending centenary remembering the start of the First World War in 2014, we are aiming to complete the Maudslay during that year. Should we fail to do so, and it is always a difficulty to put a completion date on a restoration project, then we aim to finish the project during 2016 - the 100^th anniversary of the chassis.

Follow our progress on the Maudslay Project blog.

The following companies have provided us with their services so far, often with a favourable rate:

Lenoch Engineering, Ramsay Precision Engineers, Matrix Lasers, CMR Engineering, Clifton Rubber.

Work on 1934 Hillman Minx

2012-01-19T11:17:00.011Z

We employ two full time historic vehicle technicians here at the Museum, who in conjunction with our Curator of Vehicles are tasked with the mammoth job of maintaining the hundreds of vehicles in the collection. As part of this work, from time to time certain vehicles are taken into the Museum's workshop to be paid some special attention - one such vehicle is our 1934 Hillman Minx, which, although it was running, recently needed a thorough 'going over' to get it ready for its MOT.

Technician Chris Strawbridge was given the job - and here's what he did:

The entire cooling system was cleaned out and the hoses replaced. All other engine fluids have been replaced. A new battery was installed and all four tyres have been replaced. All moving parts were cleaned and lubricated with copper-grease, reassembled and adjusted. All the brakes were inspected and adjusted where needed. The centre cross-member was removed from the chassis because it had serious corrosion damage. A decision was made to fabricate a new item from scratch, starting with a channel section folded to the correct dimensions using the correct thickness of steel sheet. An exact copy was then produced by accurately cutting and welding using the old one as a pattern. Stabilising of the chassis and running boards was also carried out at the same time to treat areas of surface corrosion.

The exhaust was repaired by replacing part of rear section (welded in) and silencer was altered and moved to give better chassis clearance. The wiring harness was falling to pieces, and after careful examination it was confirmed that replacement of the entire wiring harness was the only possible solution. After many enquiries the decision was made to entrust the work of remanufacturing a replacement harness to Autosparks (Notts). The harness was removed and sent as a pattern and for electrical analysis. The harness was installed throughout to the original method using 'p' clips and using protective covers where it passes through holes in the chassis.

We are now waiting for a few axle straps before the car can be tested for MOT.

Happy New Year from the Learning Team

2012-01-09T10:01:00.005Z

Happy new year from the Learning team at CTM!

Thank you to all of you who came to visit us on our Christmas activity weekends in December - you made some gorgeous unique Christmas cards and unusual gifts!

Naomi and I are the biggest Christmas fans ever and always feel a little bit sad when the decorations come down and go back into the loft for another year, so it’s a good job we’ve got loads of exciting things planned for 2012 to keep us smiling.

Our work with schools

We are currently working with lots of local schools getting good advice from both teachers and pupils, to help us create brand new school sessions that are completely different from anything the Museum has done before, including sessions for secondary school and college students. Keep an eye out for more information on these soon.

Family Activities

We will continue to hold regular family activity weekends throughout the year, and to make them easy to remember they will take place on the last weekend of the month. The first one will be on 28^th & 29^th January, activities will be themed to our ‘Wheels and Waves’ exhibition of surf vehicles, so come in out of the cold and look forward to the summer while designing your own seaside windmill. (10am – 12noon & 1pm – 4pm Saturday and Sunday)

Who’s counting the weeks until the February half term holiday already?... Well, we are already busy planning lots of interesting events and activities to keep you and your family entertained during all of the Coventry school holidays this year too.

But the most important of our learning team resolutions this year is that we want to make Coventry Transport Museum even more family friendly, so look out for more things you can actually do, things you can touch, things you can try on and things you can play with in the galleries because later in the year we will be asking for families to come in and tell us what you think!

See you soon, Krissy

Object of the Fortnight - 1958 Beauty Parade Article

2012-01-05T14:18:00.005Z

The days of Coventry being a city brimming with rival motor companies are sadly long gone. The rivalry back then however did not simply stop at car manufacture, but extended in so many other ways, particularly in competitive sports including football, cricket, rugby and so much more. Even the odd beauty parade occurred from time to time it would seem, as testified by this Coventry Telegraph news story from 1958 concerning a Premium Bonds draw held at Coventry’s landmark store, Owen & Owen in the town centre.

Nine girls working at Coventry motor firms would ultimately be chosen to participate, yet at the time this story broke, only eight had so far been confirmed and featured– representing the well-known companies of Alvis, Armstrong-Siddeley, Daimler, Hillman, Humber, Standard, Sunbeam, and Triumph.

Jaguar it would seem were keeping their cards close to their chest, and stated that they would announce their female representative at a later time.

The article which would announce the outcome of the parade, is one that we would not appear to have, so if anyone knows the result, or even took part, then we’d love to hear from you - you can leave your memories of this event on the Coventry Memories website.

If you click on the picture you will be able to see a bigger version, but the text of the article reads as follows:

Beauty Parade in Cars Will Herald Premium Draw

Most of Coventry's major car companies have already chosen a pretty girl to represent them in the Premium Bond parade through the city next week.

Chosen for their good looks, poise, and personality, the nine girls will be driven in style in the latest of the company's cars from the city boundary to the city centre.

At Owen Owen's store Mike Hawthorn, the racing driver, will drive a vintage car across the first floor to the button he will press to start the October Premium Bond draw by "Ernie" at Lytham St. Annes.

The girls will be Miss Alvis, Miss Armstrong Siddeley, Miss Daimler, Miss Hillman, Miss Humber, Miss Jaguar, Miss Standard, Miss Sunbeam and Miss Triumph.

On the platform during rhe ceremony, the publicity girls will have a special job to do. Each will walk on carrying the letter or number making up the first winning number - worth £1000. The Lord Mayor of Coventry Alderman H. H. K. Winslow, will accompany Mike Hawthorn as he heads the big parade from Ryton in a Jaguar sports car. With him also will be actor Hubert Gregg and his wife, Pat Kirkwood.

Afterwards, it is expected that the cars taking place in the parade will be on show in the nearby car park. A tour of inspection by the Lord Mayor and his party is being arranged. All but one of the companies have made their choice. Jaguars say they will announce their publicity girl on Monday.

**
MISS ALVIS: Judged to hold the title out of a line-up of 17 girls was Miss Catherine Mary Kelly, aged 20. A newcomer to the firm - Miss Kelly joined two months ago - she works in the aero section of the production control department. Her home is at 74, Winsford Avenue, Coventry.

**

MISS DAIMLER: The 22 years old wife of a former Daimler apprentice, Mrs Rita Hollingworth, of 124 Paynes Lane, Coventry, has been with the firm for five years. She works as the secretary of the Chief Inspector, Mr. S Brown, and was chosen from 13 applicants for the title.

**
MISS ARMSTRONG SIDDELEY: Chosen this year is Miss Judy Clinch, the 19 years old assistant to the chief photographer. Miss Clinch, who lives at 39, Walsgrave Road, Coventry, has been with the company four years.

**
MISS STANDARD: Holding the title is Miss Cynthia Gray, of 8 Charter Avenue, Canley, Coventry. Aged 22, Mrs Gray is a comptometer operator.

**

MISS TRIUMPH: Seventeen years old Miss Pauline Cranford, of the postal department, was chosen. She lives at 108, Prior Deram Walk, Canley, Coventry.

MISS HILLMAN: Riding in the Hillman car will be Miss Hazel Butcher, of 464 Binley Road, Coventry. She works in the production department.

**
MISS HUMBER: A girl on the secretarial side, Miss Audrey Moore, of 101 Fir Tree Aveneue, Broad Lane, Coventry, will wear the 'Miss Humber' title.

**
MISS SUNBEAM: Miss Jane Curtis, employed in the Sunbeam sales department, lives at Leamington Road, Long Itchington.

A New Home For Our 1948 Morris 10

2012-01-05T14:15:00.002Z

Just before Christmas, our 1948 Morris 10 Series M was transferred to the Oxford Bus Museum as part of our Effective Collections Project, which was funded by the Museum Association's Effective Collections scheme. The aim of this scheme is to help Museums to get more of their stored items into use, either by loaning them to other Museums on a long term basis, or by transferring them permanently to other Museums who are able to use them more effectively as part of their work.

With our Effective Collections grant we reviewed all of our stored collections and as a result of this review several objects were identified that could be more effectively used by other Museums. The Morris was one such item, and was selected because it was not built in Coventry, and therefore we decided it was better to offer it to other museums. As a result of this process, the 1948 Morris has been transferred to the Oxford Bus Museum.

The Oxford Bus Museum plans to restore the vehicle and display it as part of their Morris Exhibition (they have an area dedicated to Morris Cars, because they were built at Cowley in Oxfordshire). They may also make the car roadworthy again for future museum events. Colin Ellis of the Oxford Bus Museum was delighted to accept the vehicle and is looking forward to being able to make it available for the public to see.

The family of the gentleman who originally donated the car to Coventry Transport Museum have been kept informed about the process and are very pleased that the car has found a new home.

Learning Team Update

2011-11-08T09:48:00.003Z

Hello everyone! Just grabbing a minute in between school visits to give you all a little catch up on some exciting developments in our Learning world at the Museum!

We’ve been working really hard over the past six months to improve the overall standard of our Learning & Education offer at the Museum. We’ve made several changes to our schools offer, including our updated Education Pack and a clearer booking system. We’re really pleased to tell you that our efforts have been recognised and we have been awarded the Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Badge, awarded to us by the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom. This is a nationally recognised seal of approval, that lets teachers know that we provide a high standard of learning experience, in a safe and engaging environment.

There’s another logo you might be seeing around, as we’re also happy to have become one of the Children’s University registered Learning Destinations. Children’s University is a national organisation that encourages children to have learning experiences outside of school hours. Schools sign up to be Children’s University members, and the children within the school are all given a Passport to Learning. This looks just like a passport and the idea is that when children visit one of the CU official Learning Destinations they can do an activity and receive a stamp in their passport. We’ve already had a handful of Children’s University participants collect a stamp during the recent half term holidays, and we hope to welcome many more in the future.

Speaking of half term, we had an incredibly busy week, with lots and lots of families coming in out of the rain to have a look around the Museum and take part in one of our activities. We’re already getting ready for the next school holiday, (my favourite time of the year,) Christmas! I’ve just been cutting out some gorgeous Christmas pictures ready for our Christmas Craft weekends. We couldn’t decide which era we liked best so we’re having a look at Victorian & Wartime Christmas traditions over the first three weekends in December. We’ll have a fun craft activity available each weekend as well as information about how Christmas was celebrated in the past.

Behind the scenes we’re working on some really exciting partnerships with local schools and colleges to develop new education sessions for next year, which we’ll be telling you more about in 2012. We’ve also been working in partnership with Centro, the West Midlands public transport organisation. We’ve come up with an exciting new schools session that looks at Sustainable Transport, in conjunction with the work that Centro do in schools. I’m really excited about this partnership and the opportunities it will present us with for the future.

Finally, don’t forget to have a look at our all new Learning pages on the Museum’s website. We’ve new areas for Schools & Colleges, Families and Other Visitors, as well as creating an activities calendar to keep you updated on all of our upcoming family activities. We’ll be updating this part of the website over the coming months with more photos of what we get up to, news stories and more, so watch this space!

Thanks to everyone for all your continued support, we hope to see many of you over the coming months. Have a wonderful winter!

Naomi

Billy Baxter’s Kawasaki Ninja ZX-12R

2011-10-11T15:29:00.005+01:00

We have recently acquired another record holder to add to the long list of other record breaking vehicles to have been displayed at the Museum over the years.

This latest acquisition though comes in the form of a 2002 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-12R motorcycle, one of the fastest ever production motorcycles to be produced by the Japanese company since 1954.

So what’s so special about this particular bike? Well in August 2003, Billy Baxter, an ex-soldier who is completely blind, smashed the then current blind solo motorcycle Land Speed Record of 78.4mph, with an incredible speed of164.8mph.

This was achieved using a special autocom communication system, with the aid of outriders from the Flying Gunners – the British army’s display team.

See Billy breaking the record.

Billy also appeared on BBCs Top Gear, and drove one of their ‘reasonably priced cars’ around the circuit in 2.02 minutes.

On display at the Museum for a period of six months, this Kawasaki Ninja ZX-12R is sure to excite those fortunate enough to view it whilst becoming yet another scoop for Coventry Transport Museum.

Learning Team Update

2011-09-27T17:11:00.001+01:00

It’s been some time since our last blog in July, I can’t quite believe we’re already nearing the end of September. We had a great Summer Holiday here at the Museum, with loads of families taking part in our Ace Activity trails and craft activities. You kept us very busy!
At the end of August we reached the 1980s in our Through the Decades weekends. We were lucky enough to have partnered up with the BBC’s Domesday Reloaded project for this weekend and had an absolutely brilliant time. If you weren’t here you missed our 1980s ‘Bad’ Fashion show, a live (and somewhat amazing) performance from Coventry’s Kombat Breakers, 80s fancy dress, karaoke – and not to forget, THE Audi Quattro from TV series Ashes to Ashes on Millennium Place. Amongst all the 80s fun we even found a couple of people who managed to solve the Rubik’s Cube! We were really pleased with how the weekend went and it certainly looked like all of our visitors had lots of fun.
Behind the scenes over the summer we’ve been working hard at completing our brand new Education Pack, which explains all the different sessions we offer for schools visiting the Museum. We’re really pleased with how it looks and excited about the new sessions we’ve added. One such session is our new Evacuee Experience. We tried it out for the first time on a school group a couple of weeks ago and were very happy with how it went. You can download our new Education Pack on the website.
The new Education Pack is one of a series of changes and updates we’ll be making to the Learning Department at the Museum over the coming months. Watch this space for news of exciting updates and additions to our schools and family programs.
Krissy and I recently attended a really great training day at the ThinkTank in Birmingham, all about working with, and providing for, families in museums. We were both really inspired and came away with a whole host of ideas of how we can improve the Museum for families. We’re working hard to put some of our ideas into practice, so look out for changes over the next month or two and let us know what you think. If anyone has any suggestions of what would make the Museum better for you and your family please feel free to let us know.
As well as getting back into the swing of things with a very busy schedule of visiting schools, we’re also preparing for October half term (which seems to be approaching scarily fast!) This half term our activities and trails will be themed to our forthcoming Wheels & Waves exhibition, which opens on 20th October. So grab your board shorts and come on down!
Ooh – and we’ve also now got our own Coventry Transport Museum Learning Twitter account - please follow us @CTMLearning!
Enjoy autumn everyone - Bye for now x

If walls could tell a story...

2011-09-26T14:34:00.001+01:00

It’s easy to get distracted in the archive of Coventry Transport Museum. Recently, on dealing with a University enquiry regarding sports and social activities of motor factory workers, I stumbled across an interesting advert taken from a 1966 issue of Modern Motoring & Travel.

The advert was submitted by a Coventry printing firm called ‘Edwards’ at Quinton Road, yet it was the building they were situated in that interested me. Partly recognisable today as an Ibis Hotel, the original building formed the west section of Parkside, an area located quite central to Coventry with a history of cycle and motor companies to have been occupants there over the decades. These included the likes of Velox, Iden, Deasy, Siddeley-Deasy, Armstrong-Siddeley and Rolls-Royce, now sadly all gone and Parkside today has been regenerated into a Coventry University Technology Park.

The building in the advert was most famously occupied by the Swift Company, originated in the late 1860s as the Coventry Machinists as cycle makers at nearby Cheylesmore. Also being part occupied by chocolate manufacturers during the early 1900s, thousands of ‘Swift’ cycles, motorcycles and cars were made here until the company closed around 1931. Extremely fortunate to have survived the air-raids of the Second World War, this image shows the factory very well intact, and clearly before the central ring-road was completed in 1974. The memorial seen in an Island here, still exists today but was moved to the island between Ringway St. Patricks and Ringway St. Johns.

Damien Kimberley - Curator, Research & Information

Diary of an Archive Intern

2011-09-15T13:04:00.010+01:00

Hello everyone! My name is Daniela and unfortunately I’m writing to say goodbye to museum staff and share with all of you my experience in the archive with the curatorial folks.

Just a quick background on myself. I’m from Italy where I graduated in Science and Technology applied to Cultural Heritage.

You would say..what’s that? I know..it’s not easy to understand that somebody has to analyse chemical/physical/geological samples before starting to restore a piece of our past in order to understand the reasons for the deterioration. However, my passion for museum field started when I attended a course in Museology. Then I started to search for more exciting courses arould the world. Finally, I found the best Masters course in England (at least they say it is), Museum Studies at the Univeristy of Leicester.

Oops, I realised late that I couldn’t speak English at all! So, I decided to leave Italy a few months after my graduation, fly to England and start to learn some english words. And here I am, in the last part of the Masters course, in the Coventry Transport Museum for the work placement.

Initially, I decided to work in the archive because I think it would be like opening a magic window on our past. Yes, it’s magic because everytime I meet an object a new story appears in front of me ready to be uncovered. Indeed, you are able to discover the fascinating stories related to each object, in special way working in this archive I learnt many things about Coventry, as the birthplace of the British cycle and motor industry. As you can read on the museum website, the Museum’s archive is truly a great resource for anyone interested in the history of Coventry’s transport industry and the British transport industry in general.

One of the mini-projects I did was to re-organize the holding bay in order to clear space for new objects coming in. I met so many objects enabling me to understand who were behind some cycle and motor companies from the past Coventry. In fact, I found boxes full of bizarre and fantastic objects I have never seen before, such as old driving licenses, small parts of old cars, old plates, cycle lamps, maps and helmets just to mention a few of them.

Figure 1: some objects from the archive

For instance, I found an old black and white photograph showing a couple from Coventry on their tandem. The presenting letter written from their daughter was very touching. It tells how they coped in the World War II and their love for their tandem. That is absolutelly amazing, through an object you are able to know stories of people and time so far from you. It’s a completely dusty job but it’s definitely rewarding.

However, working in the archive is not so easy as it looks in terms of practical issues. In fact, most of the work in the archive are carried out by volunteers who are full of goodwill. I worked on many different mini-projects. I’ve unpacked boxes full of books (every day there are new objects coming in) and catalogued sales brochures, books, manuals, small objects and even the Thrust 2 (the fastest car in the world!) material purchased from J. Ackroyd (have a look to the Facebook page, they are our objects of the month!). You know my background is not in museum field but my supervisor, Megan, has been very patient and kind to teach me everything how to register an object from paperworks to digital database, mark an object and all procedures to entry an item in the museum.

Figure 2: the register and the special archive pen

Figure 3: technical manual shelves inside the archive

Figure 4: rolls aisle inside the archive

Overall it has been my first experience in a museum and i do really enjoy it! I have to thank all the curatorial team that have been so supportive with me. Now, I would like to carry on my new interest and look for a job!

Goodbye!

Oops i forgot to say one little thing about the archive world: it’s cold! So if you would like to do this job you have to wear a heavy jumper to keep you warm!!

Find out more about the Coventry Transport Museum archive.

Talbot Ledgers Archive Work

2011-08-23T14:34:00.001+01:00

Staff in the archive section of the Museum have been working their way steadily through the piles of books, photographs, invoices and drawings. Occasionally something out of the ordinary turns up, and such a find was made recently. Four large ledgers were discovered in a pile of paperwork and although they were thought to be from the old Hillman factory, there were no obvious clues to their origin. However, a bit of detective work in checking the model types listed revealed them to be records of production from the Talbot Motor Company which was taken over by the Rootes Group in 1935.

Talbot started by importing French-built Clément-Bayard cars into Britain in 1902. In late 1904 the factory at Barlby Road, North Kensington, was finished and the company assembled cars from French made components. The first all-British Talbot appeared in 1906, and by 1910 the factory employed 600 men and could turn out between 50 and 60 cars per month. The fortunes of the company varied over the next thirty years, culminating in receivership in 1935 and subsequent takeover by Rootes.

The ledgers are a record of every car produced by Talbot between 1905 and 1938, and list each car in chassis number order together with brief details. These include engine number, wheelbase, wheel size, type of body, coachbuilder, date delivered and purchaser. Each of the entries (over 30,000) is handwritten and by only a small number of individuals – in fact the 7,000 plus entries in the fourth volume have been written by the same person.

Even more interesting are the histories behind some of the cars. Chassis number 5000 is one of the few cars to have no details listed, but in the notes column there is the pencilled comment “Competition Brooklands Racer”, and the date of building given as 7th November 1912. Could this be the 4½ litre Talbot in which Percy Lambert was the first person ever to cover a distance of 100 miles in an hour at Brooklands on 15th February 1913? And chassis numbers 31051 to 31054 are the famous cars raced so successfully by the Fox & Nicholl team in the early 1930s.

No less interesting is the social history. In the early days of production many cars were sold direct to individual customers, many of whom were titled, but even before 1914 most cars were being sold to dealers for onward sale. These dealers include names familiar a hundred years later, such as Mann Egerton and Caffyns, but also more exotic sounding names such as the Bombay Cycle Agency, the Oriental Motor Company and the Madras Stable Company. A number of chassis were exported to Australia. And although some customers were optimistically taking delivery of their new cars as late as 1915, production had been turned over to the war effort by that time. Whole production runs are shown as being delivered to the War Office or the Admiralty, many chassis being delivered for fitting with ambulance bodies. A large number of vehicles were destined for Russia, some fitted with the mysterious sounding “Hot Air Attachment”.

Unfortunately over a hundred years of use have taken their toll on the ledgers and they are too fragile to allow access for research purposes. But they are a significant addition to the Museum’s resources and work will continue to identify and catalogue more such information.

An 'Ace' Special Visitor

2011-08-18T15:51:00.004+01:00

Last week we were delighted to be visited by Courtney Edenborough, son of Vick Edenborough who was the original owner of the Ace Cafe in London, on which our current exhibition Coming Of Age At The Ace Cafe is based.

Courtney was good enough to spend time sharing his recollections of the Ace in the 50s and 60s with staff at the museum, as well as being interviewed about his experiences for the Vic Minett show on BBC Radio Coventry & Warwickshire that afternoon.

We were fascinated to hear Courtney’s stories about life at the Ace – whilst he and his father were never hugely involved in the running of the cafe, which was one of five catering establishments owned by the family, Courtney’s weekly visits to collect the takings and have a meal were enough to provide him with a wealth of interesting tales from behind the counter.

It was great to hear that for many years the Ace’s best seller was the humble cup of tea – made in huge gallon tea pots and costing a ha’penny a cup when the cafe first opened, Courtney remembers the outcry from their loyal lorry driver customers each time the price of tea was raised. “They always came back in the end though” he told us.

But as we know it wasn’t all tea and sympathy at the cafe – whilst it was never intentionally promoted as a ‘bikers cafe’, over the years the Ace became a meeting place for young men and their bikes, and with them came some perhaps less desirable clientele. Courtney regaled us with stories of some of London’s criminal underworld who would come to the Ace for a celebratory meal after pulling off a big ‘job’ – but the police soon got wise to this and would come looking for them at the cafe!

Courtney himself was never a biker, in fact he told us about the one occasion he had ridden pillion on an AJS owned by one of the cafe’s customers and had the fright of his life as they burned off up the North Circular. Fortunately he was brought back to the Ace unharmed, but he was less lucky on the night he was coshed by a robber as he left with the week’s takings, causing injuries that have left him partially deaf later in life.

But there were loads of good times too, perhaps because the cafe was started in such a gentlemanly manner; Courtney’s father Vic sealed the deal to build the cafe on a handshake – no paperwork changed hands with the builder, no contracts were raised, but on this ‘gentlemans agreement’ one of the most iconic cafes in the UK was built and so began the fascinating story of the Ace.

When we asked Courtney what he thought of our Coming Of Age At The Ace Cafe exhibition he was extremely complimentary, saying that he thought we had captured the atmosphere and feeling of the old cafe perfectly – we couldn’t ask for higher praise than that.

Coming Of Age At The Ace Cafe, our exhibition which tells the story of the iconic cafe and its customers, is at Coventry Transport Museum until Sunday 2 October 2011. Full details and ticket prices here.

BBC Domesday Revisited

2011-07-15T08:27:00.002+01:00

We are looking for Models for a 1980’s style Fashion Show to be held at Coventry Transport Museum on Saturday 27th August as part of the BBC’s Domesday Revisited weekend at Coventry Transport Museum.

We need 10 models to be our fashion stars’ to wear 1980’s fashions for a Catwalk fashion show during the afternoon of Saturday 27th August.
The fashion styles will be judged and there are prizes to be won!

Entrants must be over 18 years and supply their own 1980’s style clothes for the fashion show.

To find out more and to register yourself as a model for the show, you can either telephone Naomi Wilcox on Tel: 02476 234287 or
Email: education@transport-museum.co.uk

Learning Development Officers Update

2011-07-06T09:13:00.004+01:00

Hello everyone. It seems it’s been quite a while since we last blogged. Since our 1940s weekend lots has been happening. Firstly, as you may notice, this is no longer the ‘Facilitators’ blog. Krissy and I have changed to the new role of Learning Development Officers. We’re really excited about the change and have been busy getting our teeth into developing lots of new learning opportunities and activities for all our lovely visitors!

We’re continuing with our Through The Decades weekends, and I can’t believe that we’re already coming up to our 1970s weekend (6^th-7^th August). It’s going to be a fun one and we’re dusting off our flares - if you come in you’ll be able to have a go at making some awesome 1970s glam rock masks, among other things.

I’m also really excited about our 1980s weekend on the bank holiday weekend at the end of August, we’ve teamed up with the BBC as part of their Domesday Reloaded project, and we’ve got a whole load of brilliant 80s events and activities happening over the weekend. These will include 80s games, 80s outfits to try on, 80s karaoke and lots more. On the Saturday we’ll be hosting an 80s ‘Bad’ Fashion Show, which we want YOU to be involved in! If you’re brave enough to come in sporting your worst 80s fashion looks and model them on our catwalk you could win an exciting prize - please get in touch for more info about this.

We’re very busy at the moment getting ready for one of the busiest times of the year at the Museum...the Summer Holidays. We’ve got a great ‘Retro Summer’ lined up with craft activities and trails to keep everyone amused all summer long - I did a quick stock check yesterday to make sure we’ve got all the materials we need and it’s looking good! Have a look on the website, or pick up one of our Retro Summer Leaflets for more info about what’s on each week.

Fast approaching too is our next Land Speed Record Weekend, and they just keep on getting bigger and better. We’re really lucky to be building a good relationship with the Bloodhound SSC team and this time round they’re bringing the full scale model of the new car for all to see. The car will be on Millennium Place on Sunday 24^th July, and Richard Noble will be giving a talk about the project in the museum. There will be loads of other fun things going on throughout the weekend, so come down and find out more!

Whilst all of this is going on Krissy and I are also working very hard to develop our schools offer. We get hundreds of schools visiting the Museum each year and we offer a range of different sessions and activities which school groups can book. Coming soon is a new and updated Schools Pack we’ve been working on which will have information about all of our sessions.

Hope to see lots of you in the Museum over the summer- enjoy your holidays!

Naomi

5 Minute Interview With Lesley Robertson

2011-06-10T12:13:00.003+01:00

Lesley Robertson, Curator of Cycles at the Museum, is one of the members of staff involved in organising the annual Coventry Cycling Festival, which takes place in Millennium Place in front of the Museum, each Summer.

With just a couple of weeks to go until this year's Festival, we caught her for a chat:

Hi Lesley - firstly can you tell us what we can expect from the Coventry Cycling Festival this year?

Lesley Well, we kick off on Saturday morning with the Tom Sabin ride, which should be leaving the Museum at about 9am, then the Cycling Festival on Millennium Place starts at 10am. There will be mountain bike displays, an organisation called Cycle Magic will be there giving people a chance to have a go on all kinds of weird and wonderful bikes, there’ll be rickshaw rides for the less energetic, face painting, slow bike riding, ‘scoot bikes’ which are bikes for very young children, and there will be activities within the Museum itself – and we’ve also got a cycle-powered stage where local bands will be performing, and an arts and crafts and healthy food fair - so it should be a real feast of pedal powered fun all weekend long!

Which part of the festival are you most looking forward to?

Lesley Probably the Tom Sabin ride – I love to see the riders setting off and understanding why they’re doing it. The point of the ride is to commemorate the achievements of Tom Sabin – he was a cyclist from Allesley in Coventry who was the first person to win a gold medal for cycling at the first modern Olympics at Much Wenlock, so we organise a bike ride from Coventry to Much Wenlock – 100 miles there and 86 miles back.

And you had a go at riding the route yourself recently didn’t you?

Lesley Yes – three of us from the Museum rode the outward route a couple of weeks ago – it took blood, sweat and tears! No, seriously it wasn’t too bad, although we had a headwind for 80 miles, Clive struggled with his knees – when we got to the top of Clee Hill Clive went into the cafe to ask for a bowl of hot water and a tea-towel to wrap round his knee...
We had a few tantrums along the way, but we made it, and were met in Much Wenlock by a lovely Blue Badge Guide called Suzanne who showed us round and gave us a wonderful welcome.

So if anyone reading this fancies getting involved in the Tom Sabin Ride, is it still possible?

Lesley Yes we’ve still got spaces available, the closing date for entries is Wednesday 22 June – I would say though that they do need to be reasonably experienced riders – it’s a pretty tough route but well worth the effort.

We do have another ride as part of the Festival though – a much easier route called Ride To The Romans, which is about 10 miles from the Museum to the Lunt Fort at Baginton. It leaves Coventry at 2pm on the Sunday (26 June) and it’s very much a family ride – we encourage people to bring a picnic and have it when they arrive at the Lunt, where they will get free entry on the day. It’s a really lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon, and there’s no need to book, just turn up on the day with a bike!

What will you be doing during the weekend of the festival?

Lesley I’m in charge of the Slow Bike Ride! It’s held over both days, and people have to ride a bike round a course as slowly as they can without falling off or touching the floor – the slowest time recorded in each of the three age groups will win a bike to take home! It’s a lot of fun. We’re also holding a raffle to win a bike, so overall there are four bikes to be won over the weekend.

Finally, can you tell us about why Coventry has a Cycling Festival?

Lesley Well there are a few reasons – firstly to acknowledge Coventry’s history with bicycles and cycling generally – the City was at the centre of cycle manufacturing for many years, and some of the most important innovations in cycling were made here, so we love to shout about that heritage. Secondly we want to make cycling accessible for as many people as possible and show them how much fun it can be, which is why we offer such a range of different types of activities at the festival. Finally, we just enjoy putting on a fantastically fun weekend of pedal-powered activities – the festival gives families a chance to get active in loads of different ways and enjoy spending time together, and that’s what we love to see.

Thanks very much Lesley! Coventry Cycling Festival 2011 takes place on Sat 25 & Sun 26 June - find out more here.

Five Minute Interview With Steve Bagley

2011-05-17T10:01:00.005+01:00

With just three weeks to go until the opening of our Summer exhibition Coming Of Age At The Ace Cafe, we dug Head of Collections Steve Bagley out from under the mountain of books, videos and photographs that he has been buried in for the past few months while putting the exhibition together, and sat him down for a quick chat about how it’s going:

What did you set out to do in putting the exhibition together?

Steve: The exhibition is about the Ace Cafe in London, but in reality it’s about an awful lot more than that. We were approached by the Ace to do an exhibition, and we wanted to explore what the Ace was in a cultural sense, what it stands for today and what it stood for in its heyday in the late 50s and early 60s. So when they asked us to put an exhibition together we didn’t just want to build another Ace Cafe, we wanted to explore how the cafe had become a cultural icon – that was our starting point.

When we started looking at it, it became fascinating – that for a very short period of time, for a very few people the Ace became a centre for them – as much as being a meeting place it became a symbol of youth and rebelliousness, in a sort of typically British way. It wasn’t inherently violent, it wasn’t really antisocial – the guys who went there were normal working class guys with 9-5 jobs and they’d go to the Ace to let off steam.

Then it became really fascinating to me to explore why those guys went, why they became rockers, leather boys or whatever you want to call them, and from that point I began to expand the exhibition into being about more than the cafe itself and what it stood for.

What kind of research have you been doing?

Steve: I’ve been researching very specifically about Rockers, cafe cowboys, leather boys – a group that grew out of the teddy boy group and were what we typically think of today as ‘rockers’ – all motorbikes and leather. A lot of my research has been done online, and through a number of books, films and of course Mark Wilsmore at the Ace has been an absolute font of information.

I’ve been trying to put together not just these guys’ time at the Ace, but their backgrounds, where they came from and to some extent the phenomenon – what they were as a group and the subculture we now know as rockers. I’ve tried to link the idea of the rocker subculture nationally and how it fitted into British society at that time and then link that specifically back to the Ace, to show how the Ace became a symbol of that culture.

Have you made any exciting discoveries through your research?

Steve: Yes – it’s a funny thing but this whole subculture that I’ve been exploring has fascinated me, and I think that what I’ve discovered is the Ace. It’s one of those places that you go to it and it captures the essence of something – although it isn’t Warwick Castle or any of the great houses around the country, it’s still this really strong part of our culture. If you go to an important building you feel something – at Hampton Court you almost ‘feel’ Henry VIII – you go to the Ace and you can still feel these guys and get the sense of what it was like back then.

So what I would say is, the most exciting thing I’ve found is the Ace. At the end of the day it’s just a caff – you go there, the food’s nice, and there’s all sorts of people coming in – but there’s a thing about this place - it’s a really interesting part of our culture, and I have to say it has fascinated me.

With three weeks to go until the exhibition opens, how are you feeling?

Steve: I’m actually not worried that the exhibition won’t come together – it will come together because it always does. What always worries me about putting an exhibition together is the detail – whether it’s going to look right, whether it’s going to capture that essence of the cafe we’ve talked about, and what we’re trying to say. The real cafe is a busy place and I hope we’ve managed to convey that and that it will all look right and feel right – and be a fun place to visit!

What do you hope that visitors will feel when they have seen the exhibition?

Steve: I hope they’ll feel the same as me – a fascination with the Ace and that subculture, and a better understanding of what went on at that time. And I think they will enjoy it too – it’s going to be a great fun exhibition, as well as motorbikes and leathers there’ll be jukeboxes, pinball machines – and lots of interactives too. Of course it will attract bikers but the exhibition will have a broad appeal – people always enjoy visiting a recreation of a building and that’s what we’ve tried to capture with this exhibition. I think it’s going to be very special.

Coming Of Age At The Ace Cafe is at Coventry Transport Museum from 3 June to 2 October 2011. Tickets are £5 on the day or £4.40 in advance, with concessions and family tickets available. Find out more and book online at www.transport-museum.com/ace.

Car Clubs at CTM

2011-05-10T10:19:00.001+01:00

Over the last few weekends we have been hosting some rather prestigious Car Clubs, and they’ve been very warmly received.

Recently we hosted the Morgan OC with over 20 cars on Millennium Place as part of their annual Lincoln to the Cotswolds Run, and on Sunday 8th May we hosted the Audi Quattro OC with another 20 cars to enjoy. Click here for images from both events.

On Sunday 15th May, we are hosting the Porsche 924 OC with up to 30 cars on Millennium Place from 10am through to 4.30pm.

All these Car Club days are FREE to our visitors, so bring your family and your camera to capture some rare and interesting cars. We have Car Clubs on Millennium place most weekends between 10am and 4.30pm. Keep up to date by logging on to our website for more information www.transport-museum.com

Guest Speaker at CTM - Peter Forwood

2011-05-05T08:19:00.000+01:00

Australian Peter Forwood has spent a considerable portion of his life to date travelling around the world on his Harley Davidson Electra Glide V2 motorcycle. So far he and his wife Kay have visited over 400 Countries and States around the world, and from Mid May of 2011 they will be off again, this time to Europe and Russia on the bike.
Before they depart, Peter will be appearing at Coventry Transport Museum to give a fascinating talk on their amazing adventures with the Harley!
The Harley-Davidson is on display at the moment at Coventry Transport Museum until 13th May.

Tickets for Peter Forwood’s talk on Thursday 12th May at 7.30pm are just £5 each, with all ticket money going to fund the Museum’s future transport projects.

You can book your tickets by telephone: 024 7623 4270 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 024 7623 4270 end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Fire up the Quattro!

2011-05-05T08:18:00.000+01:00

On Sunday 8th May, we welcome back the Audi Quattro OC with 20 of the iconic cars on display on Millennium Place.
The club are returning to the Museum for their AGM and will be parking their cars on Millennium Place for everyone to enjoy between 9.30am and 3.30pm.

The Quattros joined our Festival of Motoring last year for the first time and will be part of this year’s Festival in September.

If you’re a fan of BBC TV’s ‘Ashes to Ashes’ Drama series, then the Quattro’s are a must!

Facilitators Blog…Forties Fun!

2011-05-04T11:04:00.003+01:00

Last week we reached the 1940s in our Through the Decades weekends, so we dusted off our ration books and put our hair in curls! It was a great weekend and lots of you came to learn about life in Britain during the war. We were very grateful to our resident gardener and museum assistant Jeff who explained all about Digging for Victory and planted lots of French bean seeds with you all! We were amazed to see how much his shoots had grown overnight, so hopefully lots of you who visited us have your own mini plants beginning to grow at home! On Saturday we were visited by Monty’s Double! Colin-Brooks Williams is a professional Montgomery look-a-like who spent the day at the museum near the Victory Car – Monty’s own staff Humber vehicle. He had a great day chatting to visitors about Monty’s life and posing for lots of photos! Many thanks to Colin for coming along.

It’s always a highlight when we do wartime activities to hear the memories of those who lived during the time, and this weekend was no different. Several of our visitors told us about their experiences as evacuees and reminisced about rationing. Our younger visitors were surprised to see how little food a weekly ration was, and how heavy a small piece of shrapnel could be!
This weekend we’re still in the Forties, this time celebrating the anniversary of VE Day! There’ll be bunting galore, so don’t put it all away just yet! Children can have a go at our free activity and make their own Union Flag to wave as well as learning about how Britain celebrated the end of the war.

Don’t forget next month we have our 1950s weekend, coinciding nicely with the opening of our new exhibition ‘Coming of Age at the Ace Café’. At the Fifties weekend you can expect lots of rocking and rolling! Come along and have a go at our Elvis Karaoke (complete with Elvis wig and glasses!), and see how life changed for people after the war. We hope to see lots of you there!

An Interesting Find In The Archive

2011-04-28T11:56:00.006+01:00

Curator Damien Kimberley was in the archive recently, undertaking research for his latest book, and he came across two little pieces in consecutive editions of The Light Car And Cyclecar magazine, from January 1925, which we captured our imaginations, so we thought we would share them with you.

The first entry is this photograph of "a striking little three-wheeler seen in Coventry recently", and the magazine appeals for details from whoever owns the vehicle.

In the next edition, a full page article about the vehicle appears, explaining how it was built by a Mr F. W. Baker, of 'Rothsay', Pinley, Coventry, in his spare time, from the components of an old 6 h.p. Humber motorcycle "which had already seen much service".

We were fascinated by this little story of one man's endeavour to create something rather special, and hope you enjoy reading the article too: (Click on the image to open a larger version).

Eric Meredith visit Wednesday 13th April

2011-04-15T14:22:00.003+01:00

On Wednesday 13th April, we had a special guest visit the museum – 97 year old Eric Meredith from Warwick who is a goldmine of historical fact about the automotive history of the Standard Motor Company in Coventry and the Avon Coach Building Company in Warwick. Together the two companies made Standard-Avon Cars, these were very distinctive because of their beautiful sweeping lines and bodywork.

Eric started his working life in 1927 when he was 14 years of age, as a woodworker and progressed to a fully qualified coachbuilder with the Avon Coachbuilding Company and eventually becoming the Managing Director of the company. During his engineering career, Eric was an integral part of designing and building Spitfire fighter aircraft and Wellington Bombers in Derby for the second World War. He went on to design and build a specially adapted car for RAF Hero Douglas Barder, amongst many other projects.

Eric will be coming back to the Museum after Easter to spend another day with us so that we can film and record his amazing life achievements for everyone to enjoy.

*Photo courtesy of Jim Balfour/Coventry Telegraph.

Facilitator's Blog - Coming Soon 1940's Weekend

2011-04-15T08:20:00.000+01:00

Our next ‘Through the Decades’ weekend is coming up soon, its our 1940’s weekend on 30th April – 1st May and we’ve got loads of things planned, including the very popular ‘Granddad’s Allotment’ activity where you can learn how to ‘dig for Victory’ and plant a vegetable seed to take home and look after and then eat!

We are also really pleased to welcome our Field Marshall Montgomery Look - Alike who will be standing to attention by Monty’s Humber Staff car and reading from the real Monty’s diaries.
Lots of us who work at the Museum will be in 1940’s costume so why don’t you dress up too? You could visit us dressed as an evacuee a soldier or a land girl!

Facilitator's Blog - 1930's Weekend

2011-04-14T10:47:00.001+01:00

Our 1930’s weekend followed soon after ( 2^nd and 3^rd April ) with visitors discovering some of the interesting items invented during this decade… most importantly of course the chocolate! Did you know that Rolo’s, KitKat’s, Smarties, Mars Bars and Malteasers were all invented during the 1930’s!

Really importantly to us at the Transport Museum this was also the decade when the Highway code was first published and the dreaded driving test was introduced.

Facilitator's Blog - 1920's Weekend

2011-04-14T10:43:00.001+01:00

Just time for quick catch up with our ‘facilitator’ year here at Coventry Transport Museum. I really hope you made it to our very glamorous 1920’s weekend ( 19^th – 20^th March) where we got the chance to dress up as ‘Flappers ‘ - the original ‘it’ girls. Our visitors of all ages loved trying on the sparkling head bands and fabulous feather bowers and posing for a photo or two with a cocktail shaker poised in one hand and a delicious ‘mocktail’ recipe to take home in the other.

Music and entertainment was provided by the wonderful dancers from Chloe Academy of Dance a Coventry Based school, who taught some unsuspecting visitors how to Charleston! They ended the weekend in style with an amazing and glittering Charleston performance.

Easter Activities

2011-04-14T10:41:00.001+01:00

We decided to try something new for this years Easter holidays, especially planned for our very youngest of visitors – Storytelling for the under fives!

The first session was yesterday and it went brilliantly we had great fun telling stories, playing musical instruments and “Beep Beeping” along to the most popular story ‘ Little Red Car’.
Please come along to our next two story telling sessions which are free drop in sessions on Wednesday 20th and Wednesday 27th April at 11 – 12 on the mezzanine gallery and join in the fun.

CTM Facilitators

Pre-Royal Wedding Tea Dance – 28th April

2011-04-12T16:17:00.000+01:00

To mark the Royal Wedding, we are staging a Pre-Royal Wedding Tea Dance at the Museum on the afternoon of Thursday 28th April between 12 noon and 3pm.

We can confirm that there’ll be a dance floor laid specifically for the event, with music provided by piano/keyboard wizzo - Martin Bissell.

Admission is FREE to our Tea Dance, with refreshments available all afternoon. Tell your friends and come along!

CTM seeks Italian Job Mini

2011-04-12T13:17:00.004+01:00

The Museum is looking to acquire a 1960’s red Mini Cooper as featured in the film ‘The Italian Job’ for display in the Museum’s ‘Italian Job’ sewer pipe, as the scene where the minis were escaping Turin via the sewer system was shot in some of Coventry’s enormous sewer pipes.

If you can help with securing this iconic car, please contact Steve Bagley – Head of Collections Email: steve.bagley@transport-museum.co.uk

Facilitator Blog - 2011 so far...

2011-02-09T12:08:00.005Z

It’s been a busy and exciting start to the new year and we’re really pleased with how our themed family learning weekends have been going. Our ‘Through the Decades’ weekends started in January with a closer look at the Victorians, and last week we had our Edwardian weekend. It’s been really lovely to see families having a go at the timeline quiz and drawing trails, and really working together to find the answers. People have had lots of fun trying on bonnets and top hats, while finding out more about how people lived in times gone past. We’re really looking forward to our next Through the Decades weekend in March where we’ll be revisiting the Roaring Twenties – it has been great fun for us finding out all about flapper fashion and this age of decadence. We’ll be dancing the Charleston and learning how to make our very own ‘Mocktails’ (child-friendly, alcohol free cocktails!)

January also saw our Storytelling Weekend as part of National Storytelling week. We were very lucky to have Lady Godiva, aka Pru Poretta, come in again this year to hold some very special storytelling sessions for our younger visitors. This year she also brought Kushumika with her and together they told wonderful stories and had their audiences entranced. All the children really enjoyed this, and I have to say I loved it too - I could have listened all day! Downstairs in the Museum, children created their own stories and turned them into small books or comic strips to take home with them. Thanks to everyone who came and had a go. As well as our 1920s weekend to look forward to we’ve also got our Land Speed Record Weekend in a couple of weeks (19th-20th February) where we’ll be making and racing balloon powered cars, and our Women’s History Weekend at the beginning of March (5th-6th) to coincide with International Women’s day and the Coventry Women’s Festival. We’ll be discovering all about the vital roles women played during the Second World War and there will be a Women’s History Trail that visitors can follow around the museum.

Phew! With all this going on I guess I’d better go and do some work! Hope we see some of you at our weekends very soon! Naomi

A look back at 2010 by the Museum's Facilitators

2010-12-20T09:45:00.003Z

Wow, I can’t believe 2010 is nearly over! We’ve had such a busy and exciting year. 2010 saw us really get going with our themed weekend events. Throughout the year we’ve had many varied activities for all our visitors to take part in over the weekends. In January we kicked off with our Storytelling weekend, to tie in with National Storytelling week – and had Lady Godiva (the lovely Pru Poretta) come in and tell her story to the little ones.

In March Coventry Women’s Festival was once again held at the Museum, and we put together a Women’s History trail around the museum to go with it, as well as focusing on all the wonderful work women did during the Second World War in our Blitz area.

In July we had our first ever Land Speed Record weekend, which was a massive hit! We saw the competitive side of our visitors as they built and raced balloon powered cars! It went so well in fact that we had another Land Speed Record weekend in October, and this time the Bloodhound SSC team came in and brought Thrust SSC Driver Andy Green with them!

Throughout the summer holidays, visitors may have spotted us in the Ice Cream Dream Machines exhibition. Sadly we weren’t selling actual ice creams (although we looked as though we might be!), but we did have fun showing people how Ice cream was made in Victorian times, and challenging people to our fun Ice Cream quiz!

Drawing the year to a close we had a spooky Halloween in October, our Road Safety weekend in November, and we’ve just rounded off our Wartime Christmas weekends!

As well as all the weekend events we’ve put together this year we also developed our new Tactile Tour. We developed the tour for blind and partially sighted visitors and worked with some students from Hereward College, who gave us some excellent ideas. We were very pleased when we heard we’d been awarded funding from the CultureLink project to develop our tour and help improve access for blind and visually impaired visitors to the museum. As part of this exciting project we held a workshop where blind and partially sighted participants used cameras to photograph their experiences of the Tactile Tour. In December we showcased an amazing exhibition called My Mind’s Eye, which displayed some of their photos. It was a privilege to work with these people, their enthusiasm and open mindedness was incredible, and the photos they produced were amazing!

Looking forward now to 2011 and things won’t get any less busy! We’re stepping up the program of weekend events, repeating many of the popular ones from this year and adding in a new series of weekends which will take our visitors ‘Through The Decades’! Starting in January we will be taking visitors on a time travelling adventure that will visit a different decade each month throughout the year!

We also hope to develop the work we have begun with the Tactile Tour and photography workshop, and hope to continue improving access for all at the museum.

Thanks so much to everyone who came and took part in any of our activities this year! It’s been really fantastic and we hope to see many of you back again in 2011!

See what's on on 2011

Are you a Maths, Science or Technology teacher?

2010-12-13T15:43:00.003Z

Coventry Transport Museum houses lots of exciting technical innovations, and whilst we already run an excellent education programme for schools, we feel we could be doing more to support the teaching of Science, Technology, Maths and Engineering.

We would love to work with local teachers to develop a range of new learning sessions using our fantastic collections.

If you feel you could support us in this project please contact Julia Gandy, Life Long learning Officer on 02476 234270

Surprise Visit

2010-11-17T15:22:00.001Z

There was a nice reunion on Wednesday the 17th of November at the Museum. We had a visit from a Mr. Ian Williamson aged 80 of Followfield, Manchester who had just experienced one of the ‘Store Tours’ guided by Chris van Schaardenburgh our Curator of Vehicles. Mr. Williamson, was employed from 1943 by his Uncle Hubert Hackett (b. 1908) who ran a the largest fleet of coaches in Manchester during the War, one of which was our very own 1948 Maudslay Marathon as seen our Commercial Gallery.

Mr Williams, who drove the bus regularly told us some fascinating stories in relation to the Maudslay. He recalls that is was purchased by the company in 1948 from Oswald Tillotson’s of Salford, but had to be recalled because of engine trouble, but this was soon put right. It was part of the fleet booked to take Manchester United fans to the FA Cup final at Wembley in 1948, and returned to Lancashire triumphant – the team beating Blackpool 4-2. Early on it had a collision with a land-mark water fountain in Cheadle Village due to unpredictable steering issues – the fountain never spouted water again. And in 1952, whilst the bus was parked up in Moss Side, it was stolen by an opportunist, but only briefly and returned safely to the fleet.

Whilst visiting Mr. Williamson also presented us with the Maudslay's original starter handle shaft, of which we very gratefully have accepted as a gift. He also very kindly assisted us with our label on the Maudslay, informing us that the all-over colour was originally post-office red, with the aluminium strips brightly polished. He also told us that our estimated top-speed of 50mph was well off the mark, and should be in excess of 75mph! He should know, he drove it!!!