Commentary
The collection was established by Dr Peter Hill, a businessman and county councillor originally from Leicester, after buying Caister Castle in the mid-1960s.
The primary philosophy behind the collection is the retention, rather than the restoration of individual cars. The cars are almost always kept in the condition in which they arrive at the museum. This may be as a barn-find, a beautifully restored limousine, a low-mileage car that has spent much of its life in a dealer’s showroom, or perhaps a car donated by a devoted owner. The exhibits cover virtually every decade of motoring, from a Panhard-Levassor, dating from 1893, to a 2006 Honda S2000.
As a result, the collection includes many cars of great interest, including a fine array of steam cars and a Singer Airstream – described by a writer on the h2g2 website as “the rarest of UK cars”, with only two of the 22 cars produced known to be still in existence.
The Car Collection is generally closed during the winter months, opening normally from April to the end of September.
Further details
