Science Museum – Wroughton

Foe me it would be nice to have an idea of what the future plans are for the collection. It has been getting on for 20 years since the hey days of the open days and the collection being accessible. Since then there has been nothing in the way of additions and pretty much zero public access. Is there any long term plan to move the collection on in terms of access, increasing the collection or even changing location? Back in the 80’s there were still a large number of Navy hangars on the other side (7 looking on GE) are these now with the museum?

The point of storage is to preserve them! You only have to consider some Uk aircraft in private hands which sit outside and rot with zero effort to conserve them.
When time and money permit it will be possible to exhibit items,meanwhile they are safe.

I have emailed Wroughton to query if a visit is feasible and received the following reply:

The Science Museum site at Wroughton is a busy working storage facility and unfortunately, due to the nature of the work there and the lack of access space, we are no longer open to the public and regrettably that includes site tours.

The Science Museum Library and Archive at Wroughton is open to the public, by appointment –http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/about_us/collections/science_library/vi… a visit is highly recommended.

The Science Museum Group displays its object collections at the Science Museum in South Kensington, the National Railway Museum in York, the National Media Museum in Bradford and the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. Digital access to the collections is available through our website andhttp://collectionsonline.nmsi.ac.uk/

If you are researching one or a few particular objects currently stored at Wroughton we can arrange a specific visit for you via our conservation team. Our researcher visit programme starts on the 1st May and finishes on 30th October, appointments are available on Wednesdays only. We recommend that researchers book well in advance, should you wish to book one of these and for all other site enquiries please contact Janet Marshall (janet.marshall@sciencemuseum.org.uk / 01793 846 210)

Thank you for your enquiry and we look forward to welcoming you to one of the main museum sites in the future.

What is the point of storing things like the DH Comet 4, Lockheed Constellation and the SRN1 Hovercraft if they are not accessible to the public after all their sheer size prevents them from being relocated to South Kensington or anywhere else!!!!!!

Several of the aircraft were saved from an uncertain fate when Southend closed its museum.

As far as I remember the only aircraft to come from Southend were the Piaggio P166 which I believe was on permanent loan at Southend, The Cmelak Z37 “Bumble Bee” which was owned by Marmol Aviation – not the museum and the DH84 Dragon G-ACIT which the Science Museum must have bought at the auction after the museum closed.
It is probably reasonable to suggest that the Piaggio was at risk as I don’t think the original owners (Marconi ?) wanted the hassle of finding another museum to look after it but I don’t honestly believe that the Dragon or Bumble Bee ever had an uncertain future with the Dragon probably regarded as the “star” of the museum disposals auction .

You might be interested in a few pictures from the GWAD show of 1992 at Wroughton

http://forums.airshows.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=51176

Graham

And a Christie’s auction I recall: ‘CO’s Query’ Spitfire, a Dewoitine and a few other notables were entered. Over the years a few Kensington machines ahve rotated in/out too (Short SC.1, Gnat etc), and I remember the Comet Racer (G-ACSS) being in amongst the auction types at one point, but I can’t think why.

It used to be a happy hunting ground for smaller shows and it’s a great shame that something can’t be done in a similar vein, though I doubt any flying would be done now.

One of my fondest memories was of lying in the grass beside the taxiway as Mosquito RR299 rumbled past. Pre-Health & Safety obviously!

There is a tremendous amount of stuff at the airfield besides aircraft

Tractors, motorbikes, buses etc….

I don’t know if it is still there, but laying in bits outside one of the aircraft hangars were the ‘rails’ and coaches from a test track for a MagLev train.

The hangar with the Constelation also has a Japanese man-carrying kit – and the SARO SRN-1.

They used to have quite a few events at Wroughton – I can remember going to a kite festival, where there was a ploughing competition going on – with old agricultural implements and steam engines.

IIRC, there was talk back in the eighties of Wroughton becoming a warbird haven – when there was a closure threat to North Weald.

There was a large warbird airshow – I can remember a Grumman Tigercat, a home-built Spitfire K5054 prototype – and a DC-3 (C-47/RD-4?) of ‘Spunkmeyer’ – and for some reason a Russian ‘Finist’ aircraft – or is my memory playing tricks ? – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technoavia_SM92_Finist

The model club to which I belong put on a display – along with other ‘craft’ clubs – inside the D3 hangar on a few occasions.

It used to be a thriving place – with regular open days and events that attracted thousands of visitors – now sadly no more…….

Ken

PS – Just remembered – the last time I was there was for a flying model display – large prop and jet flying machines. Oh – and its all flooding back now – a ‘Mega Trucks’ event

Going by memory, the museum uses at least three large hangars and at least three smaller ones. It also has a purpose built conservation and archive building. There is a tremendous amount of stuff at the airfield besides aircraft. I have the impression that if there is an organised tour, it is more likely to involve the conservation building than the storage hangars.

These items are safely stored undercover and as such preserved until money permits public viewing.In contrast there are many historical airframes which are outside in the Uk with no such protection.Several of the aircraft were saved from an uncertain fate when Southend closed its museum.So I see it as a positive aspect of preservation rather than a place demanding more access.

That is one large hangar!

There are two separate hangars IIRC – the Connie, Dove, Piaggio, DC-3 are in one hangar, the rest in another.

Ken

PS This site lists the collection.

That is one large hangar!

I fear you have got the wrong end of the stick there Meddle. It never was intended as a ‘museum’ in itself as such, but an outstation of the Science Museum for large object storage. It was opened up for public viewing on a couple of weekends each year, in the same way that the Cobham Hall at Yeovilton and MBCC at Cosford are. It should not, therefore, be judged by the same curatorial standards as major collections open all year round.

This much I do understand, hence the use of ‘museum’ in quotation mars The Museum of Scotland has a similar, though much smaller, store down in Granton in Edinburgh. I’ve tried to access it in the past, and been told I have to first specify the objects I wish to see and then be lead directly to them in the stores, having been buzzed in. They used to be open on ‘Doors Open Day’ and similar events, from what I’ve heard.

The ropes and information boards at Wroughton suggest that it fancies itself as a museum at least part of the time. It hardly appears to be a climatically controlled and perfectly sealed storage facility. It is a shame that such an interesting collection is kept nominally off limits. It rather begs the question why bother storing them?

In case they’re of interest, a few I took in June 2004. I hadn’t realised it was so long ago – or that I was so fortunate. I can only wish that the collection will again become accessible.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]238608[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]238609[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]238610[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]238611[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]238612[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]238613[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]238614[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]238615[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]238616[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]238617[/ATTACH]

I fear you have got the wrong end of the stick there Meddle. It never was intended as a ‘museum’ in itself as such, but an outstation of the Science Museum for large object storage. It was opened up for public viewing on a couple of weekends each year, in the same way that the Cobham Hall at Yeovilton and MBCC at Cosford are. It should not, therefore, be judged by the same curatorial standards as major collections open all year round.

I’ve not visited Wroughton, so I can only comment based on what I see online. This format of museum is, sadly, well out of fashion in this day and age. I base this opinion on the direction the Museum of Scotland, and to a lesser extent East Fortune, as gone as of late (museums in London appear to have gone down this route earlier). From the images I see it looks like nothing more than a large dimly lit shed with many exhibits crammed in with minimal interpretation. Everything is studiously roped off and its rural location ensures it isn’t something you would just happen to stumble across unless you sought it out, though it is at least on a bus route apparently.

All of this is bad for business really. The reported water ingress makes it sound even more dismal. I would personally love to see this collection in person, but looking at it objectively it is quite clearly a boring museum to all but a relatively select few. As I’ve said before, if your only draw is men of a certain age (I’m an outlier in this regard) and you can only afford to keep a skeleton staff to watch over a gargantuan collection across several gargantuan buildings then you can see why it might be going wrong.

The ‘museum’ doesn’t have any presence on Trip Advisor, Google hasn’t clocked any reviews and even the sympathetic ‘Aeroflight’ page gives it a mere 3 out of 5 stars. I would be somewhat concerned about the long term welfare of the contents rather than postulate endlessly bitter ‘what if’ scenarios about the museum’s leadership. Health and Safety and Security might be contributing factors here, I agree. I imagine there is a lot of metal for people to steal from the site, and the prospect of a leaky hangar slowly crumbling would probably raise a few eyebrows as well. You need only look at the smaller, better staffed museums that have had items stolen in the last year. I’m not sure about political correctness in this context. Who would be offended by a collection of random vehicles exactly? Cyclists? Austerity is probably the biggest single cause here, but then again what does the museum actually offer? A chance to view a Connie in a dingy hangar whilst water drips around you? It is a store, not a proper museum, and you can see why it is slowly being run into the ground. To save costs you cut staff, so the exhibits suffer. You then limit access to the site and therefore gather less money. You then cannot afford the repair bill when the roof starts leaking, which in turn means you have to limit access further. You then have to justify the importance of this museum back to the same public you exclude, which in this day and age means very little.

By resorting to quoting Health & Safety, Security, Political Correctness or Austerity virtually all/any progress or development can very effectively be inhibited. Call me cynical, or what ?!!!!

I’d say realistic rather than cynical. All have been used as cop outs to avoind doing things at some time.

A management failure that there was no ‘Plan B’

Could have all been so different if the lottery application had been successful

http://www.culture24.org.uk/places-to-go/south-west/bristol/art39134

If the hangars are so unsafe that the public are not allowed in then surely they are also unsafe for the conservation of a National collection. I smell the misuse of H&S to cover the corporate (its not central London so who cares) lethargy that saw last years suggestions that MOSI or the National Railway museum(s) should close.

By resorting to quoting Health & Safety, Security, Political Correctness or Austerity virtually all/any progress or development can very effectively be inhibited. Call me cynical, or what ?!!!!

The Science Museum have got themselves into a real mess. A management that seems unable to cope with current fiscal realities by doing anything other than threatening to close either NRM or MOSI or both, sucked into a financial black hole with the Flying Scotsman, no real clue what to do with Wroughton (whatever happened to the plan to turn it into some kind of solar farm?). A great shame. 🙁