Our guest speaker at the April meeting was Brin Thomas from the Amberley Working Museum, near Arundel in West Sussex. Many of the staff at the museum are volunteers and Brin is the current driver & maintenance man of a certain 1920s Leyland Bus that some of our members will be familiar with. Back in 1985, a group of Sutton & Cheam members caught the bus at Horsham Station at travelled to the museum at a maximum speed of 15mph! These days, the bus ferries visitors around the 36 acre site and doesn’t venture onto public roads any more.
The site of the museum is a former chalk quarry. The owners of the site were Messrs. Peppers & Co. and the chalk was a major constituent of lime mortar. As the site is right next to the River Arun, it was fairly easy to ship the chalk to Southampton by barge.
The site was derelict when it was taken over and one of the first exhibits was a Radio Exhibition that was set up by Ron Ham in 1979. Over the years, many of the buildings on the site have either been removed on renovated. Development has continued over the years and the museum now includes a vast range of craft and industrial exhibits, a working narrow gauge railway with fully restored steam engines & rolling stock, a varied collection of vintage vehicles, radio & electronics exhibits, displays of domestic electrical equipment over the ages and a working radio shack.
Brin’s presentation also included details of the recovery of a bus body. One of the buses on the site dates back to 1909. Originally, the museum only had the chassis and engine(s). It is a petrol-electric affair without a conventional gear box, just a simple forward and reverse control. At the time it was built, it was thought that the drivers, who up until that time had been driving horse drawn buses, would have trouble mastering a ‘crash’ gearbox (no synchromesh) and clutch! A suitable body for the bus was eventually sourced in someone’s back garden. It was being used as a summer house. It’s recovery was a fairly involved process.
Several buildings have been erected on the site over the years, including a telephone exchange, a ‘Southdown’ bus garage and the EDF Electricity Museum. In addition to all this, the site includes a variety of shops and a restaurant.
Brin also informed us of the wide range of special events that take place throughout the ‘open’ season that runs from mid March until the end of October. A full list of these, along with full details of the museum can be found at amberleymuseum.co.uk
It’s 20 years since we last visited the museum and there have been quite a few changes to the site over this period. It has been proposed that we make a return visit. Several of our members expressed an interest in this at the meeting and I’ll probably ask for a ‘show of hands’ at our AGM. If the numbers look favourable, we should be able to organise a club visit. Travelling time by car from the Sutton & Cheam area should be less than 1½ hrs.
I’m sure that all those present would like to thank Brin for his lively and entertaining presentation.
John – GØBWV
