Cotswold Motoring Museum
8 July 2005
The Cotswold Motoring Museum and Toy Collection is located in Bourton-on-the-Water. This attractive village is very popular with Senior Citizens and regular coach trips bring in visitors from around the country and from nearby Wales. The village is picturesque with buildings built in yellow Cotswold stone, and a river running through the middle of the village. More about the village on the official website.
The reason I visited was to see an attraction that appeals to all ages, which is the Cotswold Motoring Museum and Toy Collection, most famous as home of Brum the CBeebies star model motorcar. Brum on the BBC Website.
The first part of the museum is a collection of vintage british cars. It includes some of the earliest MG cars and the for-runner of the Jaguar cars. The cars do explain much of the history of the british motor industry which would be very interesting for enthusiasts, but was covered by "Do Not Touch" signs on all the exhibits. Obviously this is to protect the exhibits, but would be very frustrating for young children.
There is a hands on section for children, but this was a very small part set aside in a trailer outside of the main museum. It appears to have been added as an after thought rather than an integral part of the museum.
The toy section was behind a wooden fence and unfortunately there was no sign of the original Brum. This may have been a one off, but it seamed odd that the star of the museum was not there. There was a "ride-on" brum, and some smaller models but not the actual car itself (although younger children would probably not notice).
There appeared to be a lot of building work going on which I hope will allow them to provide some more hands on exhibits in future, but until then despite it's links to Cbeebies it is not really a place that children can enjoy.
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