Years ago my Dad told me about a place in Swindon where the Science Museum held items that there wasn’t room for in their museums. Tickets seemed to be like hens teeth and then came Covid and the place shutting down while a new facility was built. Finally, last October, I managed to secure tickets for the next May.
Desolate Airfield
I say Swindon but the place is a 500+ acre former RAF airfield in Wroughton fifteen minutes from Swindon and it’s a pretty desolate place. You arrive at the welcome building to check in and when you reach your allotted time and everyone on your tour has arrived, there were about a dozen on ours, you then all drive in convoy the mile and a half to the Hawking Building.
This building, which was purpose built for the housing of the collection, was opened in 2021. Previously it had been held in hangers around the site – in fact some larger objects, such as planes, still are and the plan is to build a second building to house these. The issue I guess is that the hangers aren’t ideal as they are neither climate controlled nor as secure.
After being handed colour coded vests we were off.
It’s Bigger on the Inside
The tour begins with a short wander along some corridors before you enter into the storage area. I’m not sure what I was expecting but it was huge. It went on for as far as the eye could see. This area seemed to house transport with most on ground level but to one side there were small cars stacked on shelves three levels high and at the end racking for bikes. It was like entering a supersized DIY store only with the racking holding transport.
The tour was guided by a knowledgeable woman who was accompanied by two volunteers whose principal job seemed to be to try and coral the nerds who wandered off.
Something for Everyone
Our guide took us round and pointed out some highlights to us on the way including an 1916 Detroit Electric Brougham car proving that there’s no such thing as a new idea. We also saw an X ray van which is apparently the only object ever loaned out for entertainment purposes to appear on Call the Midwife.
There’s clearly way too much in there for you to see every exhibit and none of them are labeled with useful human readable information, although you could apparently jot down the code on the cards and look it up in their online catalogue. Also on the floor was a code in blocks of different shapes and colours which I guess are there for quickly and easily identifying objects.
It’s a very eclectic collection which includes a duck from the Rosetta mission to a comet, furniture from common cold research centre and a snocat from the Trans-Antarctic Expedition which we were told was “very successful as nobody died!”
Next up was an area that held smaller objects such as old computers, lots of apothecary jars, miner’s lamps, signs, the first ebook and much more.
The final stop on the tour was a very odd collection of objects including a blow-up ball, Simpsons clock, glasses, sofa and table and chairs. These turned out to be the contents of Stephen Hawking’s office at Cambridge left to the nation in lieu of inheritance tax. Dad says that they can have the contents of his garage!
All in all it was a great way to spend ninety minutes. Get tickets if you can.
