Cotswold Motoring Museum & Toy Collection
Housed in a converted 18th-century mill on Sherborne Street, the Cotswold Motoring Museum is a 7,500-square-foot love letter to British motoring nostalgia — classic cars, quaint caravans, precarious-looking motorcycles, and walls plastered with original enamel advertising signs that glow like stained glass. It is far more atmospheric than any corporate heritage centre has a right to be.
From Brum to Bentleys
The museum is home to Brum, the plucky little BBC TV car whose fictional adventures begin and end here — a guaranteed hit with anyone who grew up watching the show. Beyond the celebrity vehicle, the collection spans everything from Edwardian brass-lamp tourers to 1970s saloons, arranged so you can walk right up and peer inside.
A replica blacksmith's workshop and an early-motoring garage recreate the roadside world that surrounded these cars when new, giving the whole visit a theatrical, walk-through-history quality rather than a glass-case museum feel.
The Toy Collection Upstairs
The upper galleries hold a remarkable collection of vintage tin toys, pedal cars, and childhood ephemera that runs parallel to the motoring story — a Paved Paradise gallery devoted to 1960s and 70s memorabilia is particularly evocative.
The Old Mill building itself adds to the atmosphere: low beams, thick stone walls, and the faint smell of engine oil conspire to make this feel like a genuine discovery rather than a tourist tick-box.
Cotswold Motoring Museum & Toy Collection on video
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