Beaulieu motor museum

[dean36014]

I'm planning a long weekend away in October and fancy having a mooch around here. Has anyone been? Is it worth the twenty odd quid admission price? Is there anything else mechanical wise to visit whilst down there worth visiting?

[Stanky]

The hovercraft museum (only open saturdays) in Lee-On-Solent is worth a visit if you're down this way. Which reminds me, I need to revive the Solent Shiters excursion thread.

 

I've never been to Beaulieu, as I was put off by the asking price - would be interested to hear if anyone else has been and if its worth spanking £20 plus a tenner's pez for a day out. I know you also get access to the house and gardens but these are of limited interest to me TBH.

[RayMK]

If you have a broad interest in motorised transport, then yes I would say it is worth the fee.  If you only like F1 cars, you may consider £20 to be too much to see the 10 or so cars they have on display.  I've been several times over the last 15 years and do not feel cheated   .

[dean36014]

Cheers, just the info i'm after, not into F1 so sounds fine fine to me. Had forgotten about the hovercraft place, would be nice to see the monster that took me across the channel as a child.

[Junkman]

High admission (and overnight accomodation) prices are a staple you simply have to live with in the UK.

In this case, however, I think the money is justified by merely looking at the LSR car collection.

[mercrocker]

Beaulieu has improved its displays a lot over the last few years, particularly as Junkman says, in regard to the Land Speed Record collection.   House and garden do have some interest in regard to Lord Montagu and his father's role in vehicle preservation.   There is also an interesting display area regarding the Special Operations Executive which had a WW2 spy training camp at Beaulieu. 

 

Nearby Bucklers Hard has a maritime museum worth a gander but all depends how much you want to add to the cost....The coast around Beaulieu river contains some worthwhile D Day relics and provide an excellent walking beaches and nature areas. 

 

There is a working tide mill at Eling, just up the River Test from the Solent but times vary on this.  Hythe Village on Southampton water is worth a visit for its working WW1 pier railway locomotive and 1920s carriages - still in daily use.  You can get the ferry across to Southampton where the Aviation Museum has some good stuff including a Short Sandringham which I think you can still board.  

 

Exbury Gardens right by Beaulieu has a steam railway but its a bit seasonal and of recent build.   There is probably other stuff I can't think of right now (I have lived here all my life and tend to take things for granted).   Feel free to PM me with any questions!

[dean36014]

Sounds like I'll find plenty to do then for a few days then. Thanks for all the information

[dugong]

The hovercraft museum (only open saturdays) in Lee-On-Solent is worth a visit if you're down this way. Which reminds me, I need to revive the Solent Shiters excursion thread.

 

I've never been to Beaulieu, as I was put off by the asking price - would be interested to hear if anyone else has been and if its worth spanking £20 plus a tenner's pez for a day out. I know you also get access to the house and gardens but these are of limited interest to me TBH.

I've done ten Beaulieu autojumbles now and I confess I've never been in the museum - there isn't the time after covering the show and travel are taken into account.

I get in for free and always do the monorail through the museum so I can get a high angle shot of the Automart.

 

It looks alright, although I'm not sure I'd hand over £20 for the privilege. Donated a few quid to the repair projects, though.

[bub2006]

I didn't know there was a house and gardens!

[NorfolkNWeigh]

I've been twice, once in about 1969/70 when the best thing was the Land Speed Record cars- my dad has a pictur of me and my brother with our heads in the air intake of Segrave's Sunbeam.

The second time was about 5 years ago and the best thing was the Land Speed Record display........

 

I was a little dissapointed, but I think I was comparing it to Gaydon , and expecting anything to compare with somewhere that's got the Darien Gap Rangie and the Gas Turbine Rovers, Rover BRM , HUE 166, Harold Wilson's P5b etc ,etc . Well nowhere stands a chance does it?

[dugong]

I didn't know there was a house and gardens!

That's the whole reason the National Motor Museum exists. In the 'Sixties Lord Montagu was short of a few quid, so bought a few old crocks from Barry 'Whizzo' Williams' father and started a car collection.

 

The gardens are even older; it was a monastery which got snuffed out in the reformation and existed well before the NMM as a private stately home after that.

[MarvinsMom]

i've been to beaulieu a couple of times as a kid, and to be honest i thought it was a meh....

 

personally i've found Gaydon, the Lakes motor museum and the donington collection of racing cars of more interest. mainly cos (mostly) the exhibits at those other locations of more interest to me.

 

gaydon, its got the first mini, the monte mini's, the last mini, and the rest which are more what i like, or, the lakes museums has such delights as a very beige metro and a peel p50 (amongst others) and the donington collection is loads of old racing F1 cars from when F1 was both exciting and really bloody dangerous....

 

it has been many years though since i was last a beaulieu so if i was in that area, then i would probably go out of curiosity cos its miles away from home, and when else would i get a chance to go.

 

if you do get the chance though, go to the historic dock place in portsmouth, it don't look that far from beaulieu, and the tour of the victory and warrior were certainly worth the money, plus the new mary rose exhibition is open. that was closed when we were there a few years ago cos they were spraying the ship with something really noxious to preserve it!

[Ghosty]

I vaguely remember going to Donington as a kid, isn't there a Bugatti Royale there? I remember sitting in an '80s McLaren Honda somewhere, might have been there too.

Went to Beaulieu once when I was about 10 (in a mk2 Fez!), and really enjoyed it. Not been since as it's right out of the way.

[bub2006]

That's the whole reason the National Motor Museum exists. In the 'Sixties Lord Montagu was short of a few quid, so bought a few old crocks from Barry 'Whizzo' Williams' father and started a car collection.

 

The gardens are even older; it was a monastery which got snuffed out in the reformation and existed well before the NMM as a private stately home after that.

Ignore me,I'm thinking gaydon. I'm having an off day today.

[mercrocker]

Its worth becoming a Friend of the Museum Trust.   £47.50 pa gets you in free all year.    Do 2 autojumble days and one more visit and you are up on the deal.   Yes, the museum could have a lot more in it - I never felt the same about the place since the wooden sheds were replaced by the concrete brutalism of the "new" place (it was 1972 for chrissakes, I was a grumpy old twat at 13!).    It really is at its best in the Autumn or Spring, at least in the off-season.   Christmas gets a bit silly and the whole building seems to reek of mulled wine. 

 

Alternatively, go on one of the summer Sundays when there is a one-make or themed show going on outside - they do Alfa, Ford, Mercedes etc. days.   The monorail is sufficiently old-hat now to be worthy of museum status itself and so is the replica B type London bus - based as it is on a Ford D Series!    They had a young lady driving it round a couple of years ago, she didn't look like she had left school yet but could crash-change that gearbox like an old-timer.  

 

I have long been an apologist for the place, it holds great memories for me and there is still much to recommend it.   Set in a lovely part of the world, too.....

[doobietoo]

I only go to Beaulieu when there is an event such as the autojumble on as its only a tenner to get in, we do the autojumble, museum, house and gardens in one day so I cant see how you could spend a whole day there without an event myself. Sometimes local tourist info does 2 for 1 offers so worth a look.... personally I would rather go to Haynes which is £6 less, IMHO way better and is about 60 miles from southampton.

[purplebargeken]

Went to B in the early 80's with a girlie I had the hots for. She was a student teacher in Winchester so it was all quite convenient.

 

I thought it was ok, however, I am easily pleased.

[Fat_Pirate]

I like Beaulieu, I would very much like to live there in fact.  There's a ride thing where you sit in these pods that take you past various displays, it was the BEES KNEES in the late '70s, I tell you.   If you like bikes you've got Sammy Miller's museum in the New Forest too.  

[SiC]

I liked Beaulieu when I went a few years ago. Haynes Motor Museum is not that far away either and totally worth going imo.

[mercrocker]

Back along about 20 odd years ago I used to (pre-current Mrs R) be partial to the odd pop-star cigarette or three.    Nothing better on a freezing cold January day than a few goes on the "Wheels" pods - all cosy and warm and entertained in that kind of pre-satellite BBC way.    Also its amazing how much detail on a Sizaire-Naudin you can find to stare at when in the right "frame of mind" to stop yourself appearing too obviously monged.  

 

I was often politely ushered out by an impatient locker-up bloke at closing time and many, many times thought about climbing into the Eccles caravan or Commer camper and trying to spend the night in there.....

[I_am_Diesel]

It's close to the New Forest too if you are partial to trees and ponies.

[richardmorris]

I've been quite a few times now at the same time as the autojumbles. It doesn't change much year to year, but is certainly worth a visit. The James Bond exhibition is very good, not so the top gear tent.

[seth]

I've been in and whizzed around a couple of times in recent years on Autojumble days.

 

My feeling about Beaulieuaueaeu is that it suffers from having been bang up to date and modern in the mid 1970s.  As museums have moved on I think it has struggled to modernise.  I remember the fuss made over that steel structure the Le-mans cars were/are (?) attached to when it really doesn't add much to the experience.  The cars are all crammed in with little space between them, especially upstairs. 

 

I'm looking forward to my next trip to Gaydon (next year perhaps?) to see how the new wing ties in.

 

Save up the money and go to the Louwmann in The Hague.  That is a truly amazing place.

 

 

[Chris2cv]

I go to Beaulieu every year and really enjoy it. I liked Top Gear in it's Clarkson era, so really enjoy the wrecks and film based around that. Don't know if they have updated it to Chris Evans, as I last visited in March. The main museum, I will agree is a little crammed in, but surely it is good that there is a lot in there? I find that bits and pieces change every year normally not dramatically, apart from the extension to the upper floor a few years ago, but cars come and go and displays change.  The house and grounds are of less interest, but still worth a look - we had a tour of some of the occasionally open private rooms a few years ago and were surprised how relatively normal it was.

 

  I am normally quite mean when it comes to spending money on myself, but for about £20, I normally spend a whole day there, get a free return for a couple of hours the next day, and if you pay by gift aid, you get free return to the museum only for a year. £5 per visit, as I make sure my next trip to the area is within a year! I definitely don't go to the rest of the complex on the museum only ticket.     There are often deals on their website, so have a look there.

[richardmorris]

I was actually at a loose end last weekend, but decided £15 for the autojumble (including, museum entrance) too much for once given the poor weather forecast.

[AMC Rebel]

I haven't been for 20+ years so may not be making fair comparisons, but I prefer Gaydon and the Haynes Museum, and even the Coventry transport Museum. Went to the May Autojumble in search of Yank bits one year - it was huge and interesting, but there was nothing there for any of my old Yank tat.

[PiperCub]

I go round the museum when I go to the autojumbles (both) so have never paid to get into the museum as such but it's well worth a visit IMO. I know the place pretty well anyway as I used to work for a company that was based on the site and we did the maintenance for the museum and did most of the audio-visual projects too (I helped build the AV control rack that does the sound and lighting for the 'Jack Tucker Garage' and did the install too). They have a storage area for the unused exhibits downstairs where we used to have a little workshop for rack building, so wasted alot of time looking round these when I ought to have been working! 

 

Other places to go echo mostly whats been said, Buckler's Hard is quite interesting, Exbury Garden's if that's your bag, further afield in Portsmouth, the hovercraft museum is apparantly worth a visit (not done that one myself but plan to), the D-Day museum is good too and been recently refurb'd I think. The other one I'd recommend if you like aircraft is the museum of army flying at Middle Wallop. Hurst castle is good too. 

[PiperCub]

I was actually at a loose end last weekend, but decided £15 for the autojumble (including, museum entrance) too much for once given the poor weather forecast.

 

The weather on Saturday when I went was overcast but OK (Sunday was probably even better, it was where I live - 20 miles north of Beaulieu) aside from a ten minute shower at lunchtime and the place was busy but not packed. 

[dean36014]

Wow, didn't realise so many people would comment. I've done Gaydon this year and to be truthful I did it in about an hour and a half and didn't find it that good. Everyone is different I suppose. Got a good little free motor museum in Coventry which I visit at least once a year. Well I've got a provisional booking for a lovely looking 18th century thatched b&b in fordingbridge in October. Not sure what I will tie in with the visit, but a beach walk will be a must and a ganders down the river at the ww11 stuff. Really fancy the Hovercraft museum as I went on both the big'uns as a child on trips to Spain. Thanks for all the opinions and suggestions.

[Partridge]

I'm planning a long weekend away in October and fancy having a mooch around here. Has anyone been? Is it worth the twenty odd quid admission price? Is there anything else mechanical wise to visit whilst down there worth visiting?

Don't bother. There's only a few cars on display that are interesting (IMO), you can't get up close enough to most of them, the cafe is insultingly expensive and you can do it all in about 45 minutes. It's OK if there's a decent show on (the Talbot Simca and Matra Rally was a good example) but even then I didn't have to pay as I had press tickets.