We visit the fabulous Ipswich Transport Museum

Mike Neale visits the fabulous Ipswich Transport Museum and discovers that it contains much that will fascinate visitors from anywhere.

The Ipswich Transport Museum has occupied its current location in the former Ipswich Corporation Transport Trolleybus Depot in Cobham Road, Ipswich IP3 9JD since 1989. The museum concentrates on vehicles and engineering items that were either made or used in the area.  These include lorries, buses, emergency services vehicles, electric delivery vehicles and a hearse, as well as smaller items such as lawnmowers and prams.  It provides a fascinating history of transport in Suffolk, but also appeals to all transport enthusiasts.

The museum was founded in 1965 as the Ipswich Transport Preservation Group, growing to a collection of over 100 transport and engineering exhibits which were stored in a disparate collection of buildings dotted around the city until they were able to move into the Old Trolleybus depot.  A National Lottery funded refurbishment improved the facilities in 2001, and it now serves as an educational resource.

A typical municipal vehicle is the Karrier Bantam tipper with a crew cab, supplied new to Suffolk County Council in 1974, although looking much older than this, with the British Light Steel Pressings cabbed Bantam having a very long production run from its introduction in 1952.  This one appears to have had an unusually short service life, being donated to the museum by the council in 1979.  Restoration work undertaken included welding in new metal to the lower part of the cab and replacing some of the timber body.

Another Rootes Group vehicle, more modern looking than the Karrier but actually four years older, is the Sankey cabbed Commer Maxiload flat lorry, fitted with the distinctive sounding TS3 two-stroke, three-cylinder diesel engine.  It was used by Green & Skinner Haulage of Ipswich, who donated it in 1977.

Splendidly turned out in its original livery is the 1950 Commer Avenger Water Tender of Suffolk & Ipswich Fire Service.  Various different manufacturers built bodies for these fire appliances, this one being by Whitson.  A six-cylinder petrol engine is fitted under the cab.  It initially served in Ipswich, later transferring to Southwold, and was bought by the museum in 1975.

Also new to Suffolk & Ipswich Fire Service was the 1962 Bedford J Type lorry used as a mobile workshop for brigade engineers.  Originally painted green, it was rebodied in the 1970s as a BAMC (Breathing Apparatus Mobile Compressor) at the Colchester Road workshops, with a 3-cylinder air-cooled generator fitted to the back of the chassis as well as a compressor.  In the 1990s it was rebodied again with the aluminium dropside body it still carries, and fitted with a tow ball for the fire boat that was based at Colchester Road.  The museum acquired it in 2004.

The 1950 AEC Regent III is the first diesel powered bus owned by Ipswich Corporation Transport, who had run only trams and trolleybuses up until then, bought to serve the Whitehouse and Maidenhall estates which were not on the trolleybus network.  It was also the first vehicle to be issued with a 3-letter registration number by Ipswich, ADX 1.  Fitted with a 9.6 litre engine and preselector gearbox, the body is by Park Ward.  The museum purchased it when it was withdrawn from service in 1973.

Inside a recreation of a small pre-war garage sits an Austin Seven 2½ cwt light delivery van built in January 1930, on loan to the museum.  Fitted with a 748cc sidevalve engine it has a magneto ignition rather than a coil type which were by then fitted to the saloon cars.  The handbrake operates on the front wheels whilst the foot pedal works only on the rear wheels.

The museum’s Ford E83W pickup was new to the Ipswich Corporation Parks Department in 1954, with a hand-built wooden dropside body.  It was used to transport bedding plants from Chantry nurseries to the municipal parks and gardens across the city and to carry tools and materials for the gardeners.  It subsequently passed through three private owners before being purchased by the museum in 1972 and has since been rebuilt, retaining as many original parts as possible.

There is a smart dark green Scammell Scarab which was operated by R&W Paul Ltd. of Ipswich, dating from 1965, making it quite a late one, with production running from 1948-67.  The firm was founded in 1842 as a malting, later also manufacturing animal feed and flaked maize for brewers, with their sailing barges a familiar sight on the River Orwell and in the Wet Dock.  The Scarab was shunted about various museum locations from 1977 to 2014, when the decision was made to restore it to working order to demonstrate the Scammell automatic trailer coupling system.

A 1950 Atkinson eight-wheeler L1586 was bought new by Chivers of Histon, Cambridgeshire.  It then passed to Carters of Melton, near Woodbridge in Suffolk, being used to transport timber from Rendlesham Forest to Sittingbourne in Kent and to bring back animal feed from London as a return load. In the early 1960s it went to Stocks Funfair in Leiston who operated it until 1972 and then left it in a hedge.  They began some restoration work in 1989, but decided to sell it, the museum buying it in 1990, with some limited conservation work being carried out.  Full restoration took place between 2010 and 2012.

Currently undergoing restoration inside the museum is a 1948 Daimler Hearse, the first postwar hearse to be purchased by Ipswich Co-operative Society Funeral Services. Built on a Daimler DE27 chassis it has a Daimler straight six engine with a pre-selector gearbox, ideally suited to funeral cortege work.  It remained in service until 1972 when it was donated to the museum.

Being volunteer-run, the museum doesn’t open every day, but is open most Sundays and on other days during the year, so please check the website before visiting, ipswichtransportmuseum.co.uk or tel. 01473 715666.

Standard Admission fee £9 (Children 5-17 £5, up to two under 5s free per adult, Concessions/Students £8, adult carers free; Family and Annual tickets also available).  Prices slightly higher on special event days.  Facilities include the Sunbeam tearoom and a gift shop.

This feature comes from the latest issue of Classic & Vintage Commercials, and you can get a money-saving subscription to this magazine simply by clicking HERE