Small model car museum has driving ambitions
But aren't they just toys? "Yes," says Bruce Lawson. "No! Some are, some are not," says John Nunn.
Whatever you like to call them, there are thousands and thousands of these model cars making this small-scale museum a heavenly place for boys of all ages - and girls too, as it all started with two model cars, a Jaguar SS and an Alvis Sports, given to a 12-year-old girl many years ago.
"If this was in the middle of Shrewsbury we would have hundreds of visitors," says Bruce. Instead, the Cloverlands Model Car Museum is in Montgomery and is aiming to spread the word a bit more.
"We have run this show very informally and done remarkably well with it, but we thought it was time to tell the world about it.
"When people come they go wow. They are amazed. This is the finest public collection of historical model cars in the United Kingdom."
It all began with one of those unexpected discoveries.
Bruce got in touch with Gillian Rogers of Llansantffraid as he wrote a book about Charles Rolls of Rolls-Royce fame, and she is a member of the Society of Motor Historians, which he too had just joined, and he wanted to tap into her knowledge.
"When I spoke to her on the telephone she asked if I would like to come and see her collection, called the Cloverlands Museum. I said yes. This was totally incidental - I had never heard of it before."
So Bruce went along with Roy Marthews.
"There was a shed, and we opened the door and walked in, and it was like a Miss Havisham moment. It was covered in cobwebs and dusty. We were the first people to view the collection for five years."
The collection was of 1,500 model cars of all makes and sizes, including the familiar Dinky, Corgi, Matchbox, and Tri-ang, as well as many more obscure items.
Bruce was to learn the story behind Gillian's huge collection.
"She is 78 or 79 now, but when she was 12 her father gave her two models and she started collecting. She bought a 1934 Singer Le Mans car in 1958 and took it to Le Mans as a single girl, and the Nurburgring, and drove the car daily for 40 years. She sold it when she gave up driving, but still sends it a birthday card every year.
"Roy and I asked if we could rent her collection and put it on display here in Montgomery, and she agreed."
Animal-lover Gillian had called it the Cloverlands Museum in memory of Clover, her favourite dog, who loved riding in cars and spent many a happy hour on the parcel shelf, like a living mascot.
Bruce and Roy Marthews had come across the collection in August 2014 and the Cloverlands museum opened above the library in Arthur Street, Montgomery, in the spring of 2015 in a part of the Montgomery Institute which had been empty, but has previously seen various uses, latterly as a pool and table tennis room.
The model museum is a registered charity and its custodians are Bruce, John Nunn, Roy Marthews, Neil Dunbar, and Nick Stephens.
And since its opening, it has grown and grown, as its renown has spread.
"We have had people turning up saying that they have x amount of models in their loft, and asking if we want to put them on show," said John.
The upshot is that it now has around 4,000 model cars on display - there's no space to put any more on show - and has access to thousands more, allowing it to rotate and freshen up the displays. The core collection is Gillian's, but others include 300 the museum snapped up from Canada, and 1,000 racing cars inherited by the son of a Liverpudlian who donated them to the museum.
Bruce said: "We have become a shrine for veteran motor car people. People keep giving us things. We have a Rolls-Royce flag from the top of the Sentinel factory in Shrewsbury which came from a lady in Worthen, whose father was a director there. She knows about the museum and asked if we would like it. I said yes please."
Gillian's contribution is of course centre stage. Not only did she collect models, but she made them too.
The models on show are not just dinky Dinkys either. There are some of some size, like a Singer Le Mans with a story behind it.
Neil Dunbar said: "This was made for her by a friend of hers when she had to give up driving. It was her daily drive for 40 years and she went to all the Grand Prix in it and attended a lot of car shows."
The museum, which has free entry for children and is £2.50 for adults, is open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays during the summer and Fridays and Saturdays only at winter.
Visit cloverlandsmuseum.org.uk
