Work on 1934 Hillman Minx

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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.