Coventry Transport Museum

This morning we spent a couple of hours in the Coventry Transport Museum. It's free to go in and is really well laid out and very interesting. Here's a few of the exhibits we saw

This was a 1882 Chelesmore Tricycle which was very popular with the ladies of the time as they could ride it in comfort even wearing their fashionable big long skirts

1934 Triumph Gloria

1929 Singer Junior 

350cc Rudge Motorcycle - not a manufacturer I'd heard of before - built in Coventry

1937 Dennis Ace Fire Engine

Field Marshall Montgomery's 1943 Humber staff car - again built in Coventry - used from D-Day to the end of the war and covered over 60,000 in one year

1937 Daimler 'Straight Eight' owned by one of the Ladies in Waiting to the Queen Mother. It had an aluminium body which was unusual at the time

1977 Triumph 2500TC Police Car

and something totally different - a 1960's Indian Rickshaw

My favourite exhibit was this immaculate 1935 SS Airline 

Roger's favourite was this "concept" Jaguar - gorgeous

The fastest vehicle in the museum was "Thrust 2" which holds the world land speed record at 633.468 mph set in Black Rock Desert in Nevada in 1983

One exhibit I found particularly interesting was a video display of all the road safety "advertorials" shown on TV. Do you remember this one? It was the "Tufty Club" in the early 1960's and taught road safety to under 5 year olds.

I had a badge and a certificate and remember it well.....now I'm really showing my age

 

(photo courtesy of Google)

We left Coventry basin after lunch to give a couple of other boats the mooring spots and are now moored in the middle of nowhere. If you ever get the chance to visit Coventry I can definitely recommend it, both for the shopping centre and the museum.