Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Beaulieu museum to move ?

That'll be a huge shame and a major loss to the local economy https://nationalmotormuseum.org.uk/...-search-for-a-transformational-new-home/

This had a lot of coverage on the local news yesterday, and BBC South are planning another item tonight.

As far as I can tell, the reality is not as dramatic as the headlines suggest. The Pre-War Austin 7 Club, which has held its national rally at Beaulieu for 60 years, sent an email last night with this response from Beaulieu:

"We would like to reassure you that firstly this isn't an immediate change, and that secondly Beaulieu intends to continue being a leading visitor attraction on the south coast and operate a motor museum as part of the visitor experience, as it has done for over 70 years. Beaulieu’s motoring events will be unaffected, with no change to our events calendar and we look forward to welcoming visitors to the much-anticipated International Autojumble in September."

The bottom line seems to be that the National Motor Museum trust will find a new home but Beaulieu will carry on as now. A lot of the cars currently in the museum belong to Beaulieu anyway, perhaps they'll rename themselves "The Montagu Motor Museum" as before.

Beaulieu is such a fantastic place, I'm sure there's more to this than the headline and it will remain a motor museum for the future.🤞🏼🤞🏼
.......... and hopefully the MSCC will recognise that it is a perfect location for MOG events........🤷🏻‍♂️

🇬🇧🇬🇧

There seems to have been a split between the National Motor Museum and Beaulieu. From what I can make out the NMM have informed Beaulieu that they will not renew their lease when it expires in a few years time. They are off to find another location for their cars, but as I understand it Beaulieu intend to continue having a motor museum there, they own a considerable number of vehicles separate from the NMM.

Goodness only knows what led to this decision by the NMM. Maybe they wanted more space for their cars which Beaulieu was unable or unwilling to provide?

From my selfish perspective (I live only 20 mins drive away), the Beaulieu location works well whoever owns the vehicles on display. Over the years I've followed some of the politics invoving the Montagu family (Beaulieu) and the Rothschild family (nearby Exbury Gardens), but despite the rivalry I'm sure there have also been some synergies. There's precious little otherwise in Beaulieu village apart from a decent garden centre, even the former classic cars garage now just sells everyday vehicles. Also close to me in the opposite direction is the excellent Sammy Miller motorcyle museum, in my head there could be some kind of joint-venture with NMM, but I suspect the business model for that one would be on the Too Difficult pile.

I'm not quite so close, about an hour away. I've been going there all my life - I remember a primary school trip when the cars were inside the house. It was a regular birthday trip, as well as autojumbles and, most recently, the annual Austin 7 rally. I must have visited over 100 times.

I was, of course, aware that at some point it gained the title "National Motor Museum" but I don't know anyone who calls it that. It's always been the Beaulieu Motor Museum, or simply just "Beaulieu". In the same way as the British Motor Museum is "Gaydon".

I can see the logic of moving the National Museum somewhere more accessible (Gaydon perhaps?) but I don't expect there will be much change down at Beaulieu. I was there in June, and I thought the recent revamp is a great improvement. It also has the advantage that there is a great deal more there than just the cars, which means Mrs W is far more amenable to going there with me.

It would be interesting to know exactly how many of the current exhibits are owned by the NMM and how many by Beaulieu / Lord Montagu or other owners.

^^^ Maybe the answer.

"The story around the National Motor Museum Trust leaving Beaulieu is evolving at pace. From a simple statement it has opened up many areas where there seems to be more going on than we originally thought." Oscars Garage

I find the hyperbole of modern social media all a bit exasperating. From what I can see it's gone like this:

NMM: "We want to borrow absolute cartloads of money to build a swanky new museum"

Money People: "Hmm, we'd need to see a great deal more security of income and tenure before we'll consider loaning you that much"

Beaulieu: "Sorry mate but we can't make that level of commitment to funnelling all the dosh to you, we've got a stately home to run and it's already costing us an arm and a leg. This all seems a bit grandiose."

NMM: "Oh bugger, well rather than give up on our dream we'll have to look elsewhere then"

Beaulieu: "Well you do what you've gotta do, we're still going to to be running a car-based attraction here."

Which all seems fair enough, It really doesn't help to be talking about feuds, splits and such in my view. It just tends to foster opposition when a bit of working together would probably get a better solution.

If I had a car on loan to the museum, I know who would get the loan after a split. The bloke who's family have been there for centuries.