Stondon Transport Museum

[ian Howell]

Does anyone have recent knowledge / experience of this private museum?

From a recent eavesdrop it sounds very interesting, and so does its creator / proprietor!

Anything Jowett there?

Worth a visit?

Possible club meet venue?

[Forumadmin]

Used to travel past there from Bedford to work in Letchworth in the 70s. Never been there, so worth a visit.
When is another matter..

[ian Howell]

Abstracts from Hooe's Old Motor Club website, They had a club outing there (report by a Hooe Club member): -

Stondon Transport Museum lives in a converted Garden Centre, hiding at the end of an unadopted drive in a small village called Henlow, 4 miles north of Hitchen in Bedfordshire.

The largest private collection of vehicles in the country, and very much “a one off”, don’t expect rows of gleaming and beautifully restored cars, Stondon is not like that. The collection of vehicles have been taken off the road, warts (rust ?) and all, straight into the Museum as working examples of their marque, many of them are still perfectly roadworthy. The Museum was founded in 1994 by F.J. Saunders, a delightful old gentleman, who started collecting vehicles 40 years ago, and has just celebrated his eightieth birthday and is still fully active within the Museum.

The first sight to greet you on arrival at the site, is probably the last thing that you would expect in the wilds of Bedfordshire, and is a full size replica of Captain Cook’s ship the Endeavour, constructed from original drawings from the National Maritime Museum.

I must admit that I still cannot get my mind around the connection between a Ship from the mid 1700’s, and Motor Transport from the twentieth century ?, still very interesting though !.

The classic vehicles are housed in eight halls.

It is probably almost impossible to provide a comprehensive guide to all of the cars and vehicles on display, there are even some cars for sale, although with the way in which vehicles are fitted into the hall, a jigsaw comes to mind !, quite how the car of your choice would be extracted from the mass remains to be seen !

The Museum is certainly quite comprehensive, with a fine array of cars and motor cycles, everything from a London Transport AEC RT Bus, to an Asian Tuk Tuk motorised Rickshaw, a Russian Sam Missile, on its Transporter, that was recovered from the Berlin Wall, to a 1912 Lacre “L” type Road Sweeper.

As for the cars, well, it is difficult to know where to begin, with everything on display from the fairly typical, like a sectioned Austin 1100 Countryman, first seen at the Geneva Motor Show in Spring 1966, to the bizarre, in the shape of a 1985 Cursor, with detachable weather cover, built in Kent, this example being one of only 44 made, its 49cc engine returning 90 miles to the gallon !

So, I think that the best thing that you can do is to pay Stondon a visit, I doubt that you will be disappointed!

[robert lintott]

There is a website for this museum but it does not give more than "a flavour " of their exhibits . Among 30ish pictures of clean and tidy cars is Jowett CPC 34, shown in the 2008 register as 5 40083 Kestrel, reg 1 jan 1935. They say they buy and sell regularly . It seems to be well organised and there is a description of what they do , opening times , admission prices etc Bob