Press Coverage

Hucknall’s very own transport museum run by Nottingham Heritage Vehicle Charity to host free entry open days this weekend

by Tom Surgery – 15th Sep, 2021

A transport museum based in Hucknall will open its doors to customers this weekend for the first time since the Coronavirus pandemic struck. 

Nottingham Heritage Vehicles Charity, based in the former Trentbarton depot on Portland Road, will be open 10am-4pm this weekend (Saturday 18 September and Sunday 19 September).

The depot which has stood since 1936, is one of only a few surviving Art Deco bus garages in the country.

The charity agreed a 21-year lease in the depot in 2015 and since last year they have carried extensive renovation work out on the outbuildings which had been derelict. This has seen the crumbling block transformed into offices and function rooms, giving the organisation far more space. 

Entry to each open day is free but there will be an opportunity to make a monetary donation to the charity. 

Speaking exclusively to Hucknall Nub New, Simon Lowings, CEO of Nottingham Heritage Vehicles Charity said: “we’re hoping for an awful lot of visitors this weekend. A lot more engagement, hopefully a lot more volunteers coming onboard, we’d like to think we’ve got something to offer everybody: we have all age groups involved now.

I’m hoping that people will come out and visit us and realise that there is something quite special here to look at, hopefully some will want to be involved. We should be able to get four of five different vehicles out on Saturday and Sunday. There will be free bus rides on those, no charge for bus rides at all obviously but donations are encouraged.”

“We’re trying to get as many displays done as we can in the building. There’s a cracking model railway layout to look at inside the shed. We’re also putting on good displays in the shed, there’s a catering facility, we’ve got a new bus bookshop and a railway bookshop that’s opening and a new Diecast model shop and cafeteria area. If we get the opportunity, there’ll be a photo gallery. It’s certainly, in our opinion, one of the better transport museums in the Midlands.”

Mr Lowings founded Nottingham Heritage Vehicles Charity along with his father in 1999 with just two vehicles. The charity currently has 21 vehicles on the museum site, with a further 14 at their compound in Bestwood. They document the history of Britain’s buses, with vehicles representative of the early 1900s right through to the only surviving Nottingham Bendybus from 2002.

However, the group are looking for more volunteers as they currently only have a few people who are able to regularly help.

Mr Lowings added: “There are new skills to be learnt, a lot of the old boys pass on skills that they know as well, so everybody’s learning off everybody else but it’s a nice environment; we have a laugh.”

“It’s going really really well, the older members are really chuffed because a lot of them have retired sort of 10, 15 years ago; to put their efforts into this they’ve found it so rewarding.

“We’re open to basically everybody in the community; there’s no barrier to being involved here at all, and we don’t ever want there to be a barrier.

“We’re very much involving everybody because everybody’s got a part to play and something to offer. All we say to them is if the gate is open at the front, we’re on site so if you’re passing in the week, pop in, say hello, if you want to get involved there’ll be a paintbrush or a broom handle, or a kettle or a teacup waiting for you.”

There is a hope that the museum can link up with other areas of the community to help local people be able to get a sense of the true history of the town of Hucknall and how it has changed over the years.

“What I would like firstly from this place is not just to tell the story of the buses that we’ve got in there, or even our story as a charity but to tell the story and the social history of the local companies but then also to offer the community groups to tell the story of Hucknall. If the community wants to work with us and make this a real community project then we’re here, we’ve got the building, we’re paying the bills, the space is here.”

The charity hope to hold another open day before Christmas and will aim for around a dozen open day events at the depot next year.

Mr Lowings added: “We’ve got a pretty good following but we need to get people in Hucknall to realise we’re here.”