Museums
It took more than ten years of lobbying for the first motor museum to be created in Britain; and when it finally did come, in the summer of 1912, it was a temporary affair, lasting just two months. Today the situation has much improved. There are at least a half a dozen large specialist motor museums in Britain and, many more, smaller collections.
Given the significance of the car to Britain’s engineering and social history, motoring exhibits are also not uncommon in local town and city museums.
The list of British motor museums, below, is by no means complete. We are particularly interested to know of any local museums with exhibits of car-related interest. If you have any suggestions, please do get in touch at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
A-F
Anglesey Transport Museum, Gwynedd
Aston Martin Heritage Trust, Oxon
Atwell-Wilson Motor Museum, Wilts
Bourne Heritage Centre, Lincs
Bradford Industrial Museum, Yorks
British Motor Museum, Warks
Brooklands Museum, Surrey
Bubblecar Museum, Lincs
Bugatti Trust, Gloucs
Cae Dai Museum of the Fifties, Clwyd
Caister Castle Car Collection, N'folk
Cotswold Motoring Museum, Gloucs
Coventry Transport Museum, Warks
David Salomon's House & the Salomon's Museum, Kent
Donington Grand Prix Collection, Leics
Dundee Museum of Transport, Central Lowlands
Dunsfold Land Rover Collection, Surrey
G-M
Haynes International Motor Museum, Somerset
Jim Clark Motorsport Museum, Borders
Humber Car Museum, Yorks
Kelham Island Museum, Yorks
Lakeland Motor Museum, Cumbria
Lincolnshire Road Transport Museum, Lincs
Llangollen Motor Museum, Clwyd
Manchester Museum of Science & Technology, Lancs
Mercedes-Benz World, Surrey
Milton Keynes Museum, Bucks
Museum of Speed, Dyfed
Myreton Motor Museum, Lothians
N-Z
On Your Marks Model Car Collection, Lincs
Oxford Bus Museum & Morris Motors Exhibition, Oxon
Patrick Collection, Warks
Richard Roberts' Archive, Stockport
Riverside Museum, Strathclyde
Ruskin Museum, Cumbria
Sandringham Museum, N'folk
Science Museum, London
Shuttleworth Collection, Beds
Stockwood Discovery Centre, Beds
Stondon Motor Museum, Beds
Streetlife Museum of Transport, Yorks
Vestry House Museum, London
W.O Bentley Memorial Foundation, Warks
Further information
• The British Motor Museums’ website, www.britishmotormuseums.com, provides a regularly updated guide to motoring-related exhibits throughout the British Isles.
• Motor Museums of Europe, William Stobbs, Arthur Barker Ltd, 1983.
• The Book of the Motor Museum, Brian Jewell, DJ Costello Ltd, 1984.
• The Formation and Legacy of Britain’s First Motor Museum, David Jeremiah, reproduced in Aspects of Motoring History 8, the Society of Automotive Historians in Britain, 2012.
