The National Cycle Collection
Journey through the lanes of cycle history and see bicycles from 1819, such as the Hobby Horse, Boneshakers and Penny Farthings, up to the most modern Carbon Fibre machines of today.
Walk along our historic street complete with country garage including a 1928 Austin 7, early radio and bicycle shops. Lamp collections, photographs, posters and enamel signs are displayed to enhance the period in which the bicycles are set.
The exhibition hall contains displays on past racing stars such as Tom Simpson, Bill Bradley winner of the Milk Race in 1959/60, Billie Dovey the keep fit lady of the 1930's who rode just under 30,000 miles in one year, Barry Clarke National Mountain Bike Champion of 1996 and George Nightingale who rode the 25-mile in under an hour in 1938, to name but a few.
The are approximately 250 machines on display within the 6,000 square feet of floor space at any one time, with a similar number held in the reserve collection. Special themed exhibitions are always on display.
The collection houses an impressive selection of tandems and trikes. The display dates back as far as the 1840's with a wooden tricycle using a push-pull action. Tandems held by the collection begin with an 1890's Star, manufactured by Star of Wolverhampton.
The collection contains a number of tandem trikes, of special interest are, a Quadrant tandem trike dated to the early 1880's, a Phillips Duplex trike, one of only two in the UK and an Olympic tandem tricycle circa 1890's.. Our collection has to be regarded as a "must" for the tricycle specialist.
You will discover this to be one of the most comprehensive cycle collections in Great Britain. Old photographs and prints add further interest to the displays.