P a g e
4
B M C T
N E W S
Museum S a m m y
M i l l e r
M u s e u m
Sunday 29th March saw invited guests make their way to the Sammy Miller Museum for the gala opening of the Grand Reception Hall, Sammy’s latest extension in the never-ending battle to accommodate his ever-growing collection. The impressive entrance is two storeys high and brings welcome light into the building while providing space for more motorcycles, with the added bonus of a viewing area from which the Isle of Wight can be seen on a decent day.
courtyard for a fire-up session. The museum’s freshly restored Brough Superior SS100 was one of them, and onlookers were amazed as Bob revved the bike and then let it slip into the slowest tickover, which sounded like no more than 250 rpm as it chuffed away to itself! If you’d like to see and hear it, go to YouTube and type “Brough Superior start up” into the search box. In the still frame below, Bob is astride the bike with John Surtees looking on. Sammy had assembled a veritable who’s who of personalities from the motorcycling world, with the opening ceremony being performed by none other than John Surtees OBE and Murray Walker OBE, who entertained the assembled crowd with tales from their illustrious, albeit very different, careers. Despite the somewhat inclement weather, Sammy and his Chief Restorer Bob Stanley wheeled a couple of machines into the
C o v e n t r y Here’s the latest from Coventry: “Work is moving on at great pace throughout the museum, to ensure that we will be ready to launch our new look in June. In addition to opening the fantastic new Land Speed Record Exhibition this week, here's what we're currently up to: Re-routing and work on new exhibitions Lots of work is happening on the ground floor of the museum, as we change the layout of this area to make some of the biggest and most exciting changes, to enable us to tell Coventry's transport story in chronological order, in a dynamic new way. The upstairs motorcycle and cycle galleries have now been demolished, making way for
a new 'Design and Innovation' exhibition as well as education spaces. In the new museum, the cycle and motorcycle collections will be displayed alongside the car collections, throughout the whole
M u s e u m
museum. Since Thrust SSC and Thrust 2 moved out of their original home, this space has now been completely stripped and redecorated, in preparation for a new 'Working Wonders' exhibition. When it is completed, this will be a super new display of 'working' vehicles, and the important roles that vehicles have played in all of our lives, from milk floats to buses to lorries! The great news is that despite the really ambitious timescale for this mammoth project, we are still on course for the redevelopment to be finished by June 2015 - we can't wait for you to see what we've been doing!”
L o n d o n Exciting news from the London Motorcycle Museum is that by their intervention, and with help from the BMCT, the late Derek Minter’s collection of racing trophies and other memorabilia has been saved from being broken up following the recent passing of Derek and his wife Jenny. Derek had been unwell for some time, having suffered a stroke and crashing while doing demonstration laps on a Manx Norton at Darley Moor in 2000. Jenny cared for him until she sadly lost her own battle in August
T r a n s p o r t
M o t o r c y c l e
2014, leaving Derek in the care of the nursing home where he passed away in January this year. While she was still alive Jenny was determined to safeguard the future of Derek’s trophies, and through the efforts of Colin Seeley a deal was brokered which saw Bill Crosby and the London Motorcycle Museum purchase the trophies, whereupon the BMCT stepped in with grant aid to provide for their display in the new Derek Minter Café. A full report on the opening ceremony in our next issue.
M u s e u m
Colin Seeley and John Kidson unveiling the Derek Minter Trophy Collection.