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Atwell-Wilson Motor Museum


SiC

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Recently life has been incredibly stressful and been getting to me a bit. Mrs SiC was off doing her own thing this morning, so I decided to have my own little jolly trip to a local(ish) museum.

 

The Atwell-Wilson Motor Museum claim to fame is that its the only car museum of Wiltshire. Its based in what can be described as a bunch of posh cow sheds just on the outskirts of Calne. I've passed the sign to the place for many years and kept saying I should pay a visit. At one point I thought it closed down. However they've frequented the NEC Classic Car Shows, so I guess they are very much alive and active.

 

Not the cheapest to get in at £7 and its not the biggest museum. But then it is the expensive South and they need to pay the bills somehow. If you're near or passing by, I'd say its well worth a visit.

 

Without a further a do, here are the pictures from today.

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That electric van outside hasn't even done 100 miles!

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This sign inside made me chuckle. Electric French van? DO NOT PRESSURE WASH!

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If you're interested in going.

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Once you pull in, you see the main museum shed.

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Now lets go into the museum.

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Hall 3 - My Favourite!

 

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RoverShite

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DollyShite

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ADO16

I spent far too long poking my head under and around this 1100.

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Turbo Mini

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Reno 4

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9x Mini Concept

Unusual Mini with only forward and reverse gears. Engine geared for lots of torque, so you apparently don't need to have multiple ratios. Pamphlet mentioned that it took forever to get past 20mph.

 

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Hall 4

 

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Another French leccy

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Is that another ADO16? You bet it is!

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See light peaks don't look that bad on them!

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Even has Vulgalour approved giffer door protectors.

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Paintwork is suitably shoddy. Makes me feel a tiny bit better about hand painting mine.

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And naturally rust is breaking through.

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Fin.

 

Probably some cars I didn't take a photo of, but you get the general jist. I enjoyed myself and would go again. Possibly not worth driving many hours to go to, but its a nice quaint autoshite style museum. The cars aren't over restored, many are owned by people and on display here and you can get right up close to them. Take as many photos you like, feel free to move the information stand but the only rules are don't touch and don't open the doors.

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Did you take the MG?

No. MGB GT is asleep. Sssssh.

 

I did contemplate it and thought I really should do, but that required walking up to the garage to collect it and hope it'll run after sitting idle for like 4-6ish months. Plus my stress levels can't take driving that a long journey like that.

 

Did have a good fun drive over there with the TT though. Even if that journey gave me the impression that, even though its not that powerful by modern standards (200bhp), its far too powerful to have fun on back roads. A quick blast on the loud pedal on back country roads, shift into 2nd, shift into 3rd and you're going a bit too quick without the engine even revving that high. In third at ~4000rpm it'll be doing 70mph. Red line in 3rd is 90mph...

 

Definitely way too quick and powerful to have proper fun buzzing on country lanes imo. A Ford Puma in front of me for a bit was trying so hard and I wasn't even trying or pushing the TT that hard. Pretty certain I would be having more fun in that Puma to be honest. But it was still a good blast over.

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£7 to get in doesn't sound expensive to me.

Registered charity it says somewhere when you Google. How does that work?

Everyone's a charity these days.

I guess charity as its a museum and so makes it tax efficient?

I didn't even think about it tbh, but they didn't mention gift-aid. Shame as the government gets enough tax out of me and I don't mind giving some of it back to decent causes.

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I thought that had closed too but I'm evidently wrong. Went once about twelve years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. They used to have some cars stored outside, are any still there? The only one I can now remember was a metallic green Mk. 3 Cortina estate which we tried to buy as it was a bit too nice to sit outside. Nice to see the place still going though, I'd like to go back but it's a long way from home these days.

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I thought that had closed too but I'm evidently wrong. Went once about twelve years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. They used to have some cars stored outside, are any still there? The only one I can now remember was a metallic green Mk. 3 Cortina estate which we tried to buy as it was a bit too nice to sit outside. Nice to see the place still going though, I'd like to go back but it's a long way from home these days.

No cars displayed outside that I saw. They do have two other storage sheds but they weren't open today. One is apparently being made into some sort of Austin type collection that someone donated when they died. But they're still waiting for the cars.
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Can you not put the MG in there? Free storage.

Not sure I'd want kids fingers all over it as usually happens in museums!

 

Anyway longer term I have my Father-in-law's garage for storage of it... ;) He's the one suggesting strongest to me in not selling it! Plus even though its costing me to store it in the rented garage, it's appreciating enough that it covers that cost. Depressingly it's better for me to keep it than cash in the bank. Depressing because it means classics are slowly becoming more and more unaffordable.

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We all visited as a forum in 2014 (I think) when we had our Shitefest in Wiltshire, it's a really nice museum with plenty of interesting this to see, it's worth popping into if your heading back from say Devon on holiday and fancy a little break like I did last year with the kids, there's a Cosy Coupe which my daughter loved riding about in whilst we was there. I certainly recommend visiting if your in the area.

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We all visited as a forum in 2014 (I think) when we had our Shitefest in Wiltshire, it's a really nice museum with plenty of interesting this to see, it's worth popping into if your heading back from say Devon on holiday and fancy a little break like I did last year with the kids, there's a Cosy Coupe which my daughter loved riding about in whilst we was there. I certainly recommend visiting if your in the area.

Ha. I did think someone on here must have been before. A quick Google didn't find anything apart from you mentioning about the place in 2010 and how you'd like to go.

 

That looks pretty fucking good! You say it's not that big but it looks plenty large to me. Top place for a full blown meet. Ta for sharing the pics man. Some proper interesting stuff and I hope it lifted up your mood a bit.

Yeah I was probably a bit harsh on the price. Shame the 7 quid doesn't give the opportunity to go back again like many places. I guess it was because I'm comparing it to Haynes Motor Museum which is a lot larger and 15 quid for the year if you gift aid it.
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Looks a great place to visit, thanks for sharing it with us :)

£7 to get in doesn't sound expensive to me.

Registered charity it says somewhere when you Google. How does that work?

Everyone's a charity these days.

 Advanced apolgy for thread hijack, but I hope it ties in with the thread.

 

Museums are often registered charities, because it gives them a legal status, in the same way that a limited company has one, and there are benefits in some taxes and in rates. A lot of museums, including the one where I volunteer are registered as educational trusts, so the information boards you can see and guides are one aspect, as are programmes and activities for schools. We also provide work placements for young or older people who have difficulty in entering or re-entering the world of work. However you to have to prove to the Charity Commissioners every year how you are meeting your objectives to retain your charitable status.

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Hey I've been here! A lovely little museum, I went when I had the vel satis and there was a car show on. Certainly turned some heads, mostly neckbeards rather than the honeys. There was a couple of auto jumble stalls and a brass band, very British.

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