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MY SPACE<br />
Bentley Motor Museum<br />
A century of automobile history<br />
What sorts of cars do you keep at Bentley? We try to<br />
get a really good cross section here, and not only cars –<br />
we also have a collection of motorcycles, a horse-drawn<br />
hearse and a 1937 Dennis fire engine.<br />
Where do they come from? They are all privately<br />
owned. We charge a very modest rent to keep them here<br />
and in return we cover the insurance and security.<br />
Who owns the fire engine? That one belongs to<br />
Crowborough Council – it was found in a field and<br />
restored. Its bell was found being used in a pub on one<br />
of the Scottish islands, where somebody recognised it as<br />
the fire engine’s bell. The publican gave it to him and he<br />
brought it back.<br />
How long has the motor museum been here? We<br />
opened in April 1982 with 25 cars. The very first one<br />
was the 1928 Minerva, which is 17 feet long and weighs<br />
two and a half tonnes, so the rest of the museum was<br />
built up around that! I’ve been in that one once a long<br />
time ago – the wheels are so big that you go over a bump<br />
and don’t even notice.<br />
What’s a typical day at the museum? We open at<br />
10am, and a big part of the job is walking around and<br />
chatting to the visitors, but then there’s always a lot of<br />
running around that you don’t expect! Sometimes an<br />
owner will come in and want to start their car up, or<br />
you’ll see something that needs a bit of a polish. Some<br />
days we have school visits.<br />
What criteria does a car have to meet to be kept<br />
here? It depends on what it is… it has to be in pretty<br />
excellent condition, it has to have an interesting history<br />
and it has to be in some way educational.<br />
Do you own any of them? The pre-war Austin 7<br />
replica belongs to my husband. He came to Bentley to<br />
talk about keeping it here – he didn’t expect to find a fellow<br />
car enthusiast with no wedding ring – so that car is<br />
responsible! We had all sorts of fun and games in that.<br />
Which car in the museum is the most expensive?<br />
We couldn’t say, but there are two cars here which are<br />
insured for over a million. See if you can guess which<br />
ones they are… Rebecca Cunningham spoke to Angela Gould<br />
bentley.org.uk<br />
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