Volunteers Outing to Bletchley Park

Volunteering at the British Motor Museum offers many highlights throughout the year, whether it's new and exciting vehicles being added to the collection, new projects and activities, or engaging with the many interesting people who come to visit the Museum’s extensive collection of historic British cars.

Another highlight, that comes every year is the Volunteers' "annual outing". This often involves a trip to another museum, such as the new Silverstone Museum last year and Brooklands the year before that. We’ve also been fortunate to view the London Transport Museum Reserve Collection and the Jaguar Land Rover Classic workshops near Coventry. 

Most years, our outings are related to vehicles or transportation, but this year, the Museum had arranged something rather different for us – a visit to Bletchley Park, near Milton Keynes. So, on 13 September, nearly 50 volunteers boarded the coach at the Museum for the 45-mile trip to Bletchley. A great benefit of the Museum's location, right on junction 12 of the M40, is that we can easily get to most places. Upon our arrival at the Visitor Centre, we were greeted with tea, coffee and biscuits, plus a brief overview of the museum’s large layout and attractions. We also split up into two groups for an hour-long guided tour.

Bletchley became the principal centre of Allied codebreaking during WWII. It housed the Government Code and Cypher School, which regularly penetrated the secret communications of the Axis Powers. The most important and well-known were the German Enigma and Lorenz cyphers, decoded by people like Alan Turing.

The main office at Bletchley Park

In addition to our guided tour, a great audio tour was available to fully explain how the whole site at Bletchley was run during the war in great secrecy. At its peak, nearly 10,000 people, three-quarters of whom were women, worked at Bletchley and its outstations. This is reflected in the large number of buildings on site, referred to mainly as huts or blocks, with the centrepiece being The Mansion (the main headquarters), built in 1883.

Finally, for those interested, the garages and stables that adjoined the Mansion contained several fascinating wartime vehicles. The day was another excellent outing, for which we volunteers must thank the British Motor Museum and our coordinator Hannah Leese for organising.

Volunteer Update and News - March 2023

Our last blog was dedicated to Sonja Dosanjh, who retired as our Volunteer Coordinator after a 17-year association with the Museum. So, we’ll start this one by welcoming our new Coordinator, Hannah Leese, who takes over the mantle of looking after the 92 strong volunteer work force. Hannah, a native of Devon, studied Film & TV production at university and has been working at the Museum since 2016. She started in the Marketing Department, but then in 2019 took on the role of HR Coordinator, which now encompasses this additional role.

At the end of last year, 18 volunteers received their 10-year service awards from Museum MD Jeff Coope. All were from the initial intake of 30 volunteers, recruited during the summer of 2012. As explained in our last blog, vehicle inspection and recording data were the first tasks undertaken, before the new Collections Centre came on stream.

However, since then volunteer numbers have significantly increased, as have the numerous tasks we now undertake, both inside and outside the Museum.

The bulk of the volunteer force is still very much involved with guiding and tours. Whilst this was originally just focused on the Collections Centre, as the Museum expands, we are now assisting with guiding in the main building as well. We’re also getting involved in the many special events, such as quiz nights, car gatherings and shows that the Museum regularly puts on.

Four volunteers are still involved in vehicle data collection and recording, as the Museum collection constantly grows with new acquisitions. A more recent sizeable acquisition was the transfer of around 50 vehicles from Vauxhall Motor’s vehicle collection, which now reside at the Museum.

A small team of volunteers continue with various restoration projects, the most recent one being the refurbishment of the large collection of display engines the Museum had in store. Their current project is the part restoration of a 1936 Rover Speed 14 - pictured below with doors removed.

Refurbish projects – the 1936 Rover and numerous display engines

The Museum’s archive section has always had a volunteer presence and the number has increased to around eight over the last few years. Recent additions to the archive collection have come from both Lucas and Vauxhall, which all need sorting and collating. It’s an interesting fact, that hardly a week goes by without someone donating something from the motor industry’s past, all of which need attention.

Recording history, literally has been largely the task volunteer, Vince Hall. Oral history is an important and always interesting part of the Museum’s mission. Vince interviews people involved in the motor industry, both past and present, many of them his fellow volunteers.

Whilst the above activities have largely been in place since the beginning, it’s the creation of what is known as the Outreach Team that has generated many of the new projects over the last couple of years. Led by Emma Rawlinson of the Learning and Engagement Team, approximately 25 volunteers are now actively involved.

One of the first projects was going out into the community, visiting care homes, dementia cafes, health and well-being groups and schools, with a large collection of motoring memorabilia. This has recently expanded during the cold spell and current economic climate, with Warm Hub centre visits, which have sprung up in the area. Not only have these been a success and a great stimulator, but they have also helped in promoting the Museum and its mission to serve the community. Some of the groups mentioned, particularly schools, also make visits to the Museum and again the volunteers assist with the tours and object handling.

Volunteers at their first Warm Hub visit

The Museum was an early contributor to the STEM project, which has now grown into STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths). Recent projects have included helping nearby MOD Kineton with a series of learning sessions, whilst six volunteers are currently preparing and distributing STEAM bags as part of the Community Pantry project.

Finally, we have around 18 volunteers, who over the last couple of years have been preparing and are now delivering talks on various as aspects of motoring history related to the Museum. 7 talks have now been completed and approved. They are: Wizardry on Wheels – The Mini; The Most Beautiful Car in the World – The E-Type Jaguar; From Farm to Front Line – The Land Rover; History of the British Sports Car; Evolution of the British Motor Industry; The Car’s the Star and The Crown and the Car. All run for around 45 minutes, with over 60 relevant and interesting slides for most talks. All talks can now be booked, for delivery at an outside venue, or at the Museum.

It is hoped most, if not all the talks, will be delivered during the Museum’s 30^th Anniversary week - 14^th to 20^th August. More news on that will follow, but one thing is sure, the volunteers will be playing a big part during the week.