The Cotswold Motoring Museum can be found in the picturesque Cotswold village of Bourton-on-the-Water, close to both Cheltenham and Cirencester. Inside the museum, the visitor can follow the fascinating journey of the rise of motoring through the decades of the twentieth-century.
The museum is brimming with memorabilia that helped to popularise motoring, such as clothing, radio sets and 1920s picnic sets. The more mechanically-minded visitor may be more interested in the practical items of memorabilia, such as spark plugs, brake fluid tins and carbide pots. There are also displays of the famous old free gifts from companies like Esso and BP, including old pen-knives, cocktail sticks, children’s games and sets of cards. This motoring paraphernalia sits alongside the cars in the museum and helps to create a real sense of the excitement of motoring from its early days in the 1920s and throughout the subsequent decades.
The cars within the museum are numerous and it is probably possible for most people to find a database entry or an actual model of the car that they first drove or that they have always craved to own. Exhibits on display include a London taxi with over 700,000 miles clocked up; a Jaguar Xk140; a Morris Minor; an Austin Seven and a 1972 Mini Clubman.
There are also a range of caravans from the 1920s and 1970s that seem very small compared to the modern caravans of the twenty first century.
Motorcycle fans won’t be disappointed either, as the motorcycle and scooter collection is extensive. There is a Levis that was once owned by a Harold Breach, a well-known motorcycle- football player for Gloucester, as well as a Brough Superior, regarded as a super-bike, yet nick-named "The Widow Maker" due to the large number of fatal accidents it was involved in.
The real cars on show are complimented by the displays found in the Toy Collection. There is an extensive selection of pedal-cars, toy bicycles and aeroplanes. Some of the toy cars are perfect one-third replicas of original, real cars and were one-off creations from various manufacturers at the time.
There are many other toys on display that are also linked to travel. These include windmills crafted from Meccano; Scaletrix sets; push-along metal and wooden vehicles and penny tin toys. These are now highly collectable, as are the old Dinky toys of models of a large variety of vehicles. There is a fantastic display of these toys, all donated by a collector known to the museum.
Finally, it is possible to visit little "Brum": a model-car made famous in a children's programme. The museum is his home and as well as meeting him, visitors can also see where Brum is filmed. Brum is regularly shown on BBC and is a super-hero car who has exciting adventures.
The museum regularly has new exhibits and displays and also organises events for those keen on the history of motor cars and motorcycles.