Tettenhall Transport Heritage Centre
‘A hidden gem’, ‘An Aladdin’s Cave’, ‘Awesome’, are just some of the comments made by visitors to Wolverhampton’s only transport museum. Located in the Goods Depot of the former Tettenhall Great Western Railway Station, off Henwood Road, the Heritage Centre has been open for just over 10 years. A registered charity run entirely by volunteers, and completely free to enter, it was founded to preserve the transport heritage of the City, but has become more than that.
Begun by an aircraft preservation group in 2014, as it was created in a 100 year old GWR building, just yards from the works of famous transport engineers Thomas Telford (Tettenhall Rock) and James Brindley (The Staffs & Worcs Canal), it is an ideal site for a transport museum. Within there are five complete aircraft, 10 aircraft cockpits (five of which visitors are free to enter) a working OO Gauge layout of Tettenhall Station as it used to be, and so much more. Curator Alec Brew says “We are particularly proud of our collections of Villiers-powered machinery, Boulton Paul Aircraft products and Wolverhampton- made bicycles.”
From the outset visitors began donating artefacts which had little association with transport, but a great deal with the industrial and social history of the City. Time and again people explain that their parent or grandparent have died and they wished to see their precious artefacts preserved, but could find nowhere else to donate them. Alec says, “We like to say we are a museum run by the community for the community, but increasingly the community decides what we have on display.”
The volunteers undertake restoration work which compares favourably with that achieved on TV’s The Repair Shop, and the museum is very interactive in the old fashioned way in that there are no barriers, and handling the exhibits is part and parcel of the experience. Children love being able to climb into aircraft, to pick things up, try things on, and find something interesting in the gift shop.
The Museum lends artefacts to local amateur dramatic groups and has a Schools Heritage Box, full of Wolverhampton-made items, which it loans out to local schools, free of charge. Visitors are universally astonished by how much is on display, not so much a quart in a pint pot, more a gallon in a pint pot.
The Heritage Centre is open every Saturday and Sunday 10 am to 3 pm and Friday mornings 10 am to 1 pm. And across the car park is Cupcake Lane Café in the old station waiting room, and Weybridge Lane Gift Shop in the old booking office, the whole complex being next to the Smestow Valley walking/cycle path which runs along the old railway lane all the way to Wombourne and beyond.
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