Science Museum, Wroughton

This is a subject close to my heart. It would be wonderful to have a civil aircraft collection, under cover in the UK. But the
It’s a shame that there isn’t more money available to revamp the Science Museum site at Wroughton, that would be a great place to keep a British civil aircraft collection and perhaps one Canadian four engine airliner too!

It is time that the aircraft at Wroughton were extracted from the Large Objects Store. Their condition is deplorable. It is not the SM Wroughton staff’s fault : Wroughton has been starved of funds for decades and they cannot even keep up with deterioration in the state of the hangars. Public access is desperately restricted … ‘researcher access visits only’ duration of which is typically one hour.

The Connie hangar has a badly leaking roof and the exotic metallurgy of some of the exhibits is suffering terribly. The concrete roof of the adjacent hangar which houses the Trident, DC3 etc is spalling badly and lumps drop off – it is a hard hat area. The potential for damage to the exhibits is immediate.

I won’t even mention the dreadful condition of the aero engine collection, the cars and so on … There is talk currently of a new facility, but that’s been going on for ages.

It is neglect and a disgrace that a National Museum does nothing about it: the small staff of conservators are a wonderful band of people but it is a losing battle for them. I doubt that any of the much-garlanded Trustees have ever set foot inside those hangars … if they did, they would have to take action.
Rant over.
Nick

I’m sure that the mere tens of thousands of artifacts at Stafford pales into insignificance against the Science Museum’s stash at Wroughton.

Mention of the Large Objects Store at Science Museum outstation, Wroughton – from what I can see, the RAF Museum reserve collection is held in far, far better conditions than the Science Museum reserve.

I managed to wangle a couple of Researcher Access Visits in 2013 : the general public is not admitted, and the conservator who took us round said that group visits to the hangars themselves were a lot less frequent due to the amount of preparation time needed. The Library and Archive is a lot easier to access.

It can be quite frustrating : one is questioned as to exactly what one wants to see : however there is no easy access to any kind of catalogue of items held. So if you do not know what you want to see, the visit request may fail.

I was particularly interested in military aero engines and early gas turbines. I had a very vague memory from an 1980s Open Day that there were a Daimler Benz DB610 (coupled engines) and a DB605. I was told that they were not on the inventory, so I said I would like to look at the Lockheed Constellation.

On arrival at the Connie hangar, the conservator was sweeping out large amounts of standing water … the roof leaks badly, with the expected effect on the large number of vehicles/bikes/engines/aircraft in the building. All the funds the Science Museum has seem to be directed towards the London museum and Wroughton is very much the poor relation. The Wroughton staff are fighting a losing battle against the deterioration of the older buildings, starved of funds for repair.

Within 5 minutes of getting in, I was able to identify the DB 610 & 605 engines, leading me to the conclusion that the inventory database they can access is not very reliable. The state of some of the stock is deplorable and, in the case of early missiles (some constructed with pretty unusual metals) pretty much beyond any restoration.

On a later visit, we visited one of the concrete hangars – the concrete is spalling off the inside of the roof and lumps are dropping on to the exhibits. It is a compulsory hard-hat visit. The DH Trident is particularly vulnerable.

I could make a lot more observations… this state of affairs is not a pity or a shame, it is downright neglect of a collection of rare and occasionally unique pieces of our engineering history. If you can’t look after something, then at least loan it to a group that will. This is not down to the conservation staff at Wroughton who are doing their best, this is a Board issue. I doubt if any of the Science Museum Trustees have ever set foot in one of those hangars on a rainy day : if they had they would be doing something about it.
Nick