Milestones Museum, Basingstoke |
Home / Forum / Pictures / Bikes / Trikes / HotRods
|
Basingstoke isn’t really known for it’s tourist attractions. Over the years we’ve been used by comedians as a generic name for sprawling ugly towns everywhere & have gained an image of concrete & roundabouts. It WAS like that once but It’s not entirely true these days. Most of the 60s architecture has long since gone, we’ve got a big new shiny shopping centre & there are some nice little areas tucked away if you look for them. “Milestones” is an attraction that seems to get very little media coverage, which is a shame cos it’s actually very good. Standing on a raised bank overlooking the main Basingstoke ring road, the museum is housed in a purpose built “hangar” surrounded by a grassy play/picnic area full of agricultural implements & tactile modern sculptures. The whole place is very “hands on” with kids positively encouraged to touch the exhibits & lots of educational information. During term time they host a lot of school visits & have classroom facilities & guides in period costume to show the youngsters around. So what is Milestones exactly then? Well, it’s a museum of Hampshire life within living memory. They’ve scoured the county & bought up examples of buildings, businesses & shops, dismantled them, then rebuilt them brick by brick here into street scenes. |
It’s very well done, with real attention to detail, with pavements, manhole covers, tram lines, genuine wooden block-end cobbles -even down to stuffed birds sitting on rooftops. Window displays are full of genuine period products, vehicles stand on the streets & at certain times, enthusiasts wander the alleyways in period garb. It’s like strolling through a film set., A First World War Thornycrofts army lorry stands on a street corner, outside a Georgian pub that serves local Gales beers at lunchtimes & weekends.
For some 75 years the main employer in Basingstoke was Thornycrofts. They had a large factory literally within a stone’s throw of the museum, (if you’re a good shot), & built heavy lorries, most famously the huge Antar tank transporters. They were still here when I first moved to the town as a teenager, though reduced to building gearboxes for other lorry manufacturers. Now sadly gone, their factory site is occupied by Morrisons supermarket, but the landmark |
factory clock tower will soon be resurrected & mounted on a plinth on the roundabout in front of the museum. The Thornycrofts Society has provided some of the vehicles that fill the street scenes & did a lot of the fund raising for the project. Along with other local companies, they have a display of their history & even some of the fittings from the factory. Some of the shops are open for visitors to wander in & check out the shelves of goods, while others lead into display areas. |
There are lorries, buses, a tram, steam engines, motorcycles, railway wagons, an example of a three-wheeled sports car built by a local entrepenuer -even period bicycles filling the streets.When you enter the lobby the museum is set below ground level so your first view is of the rooftops of the buildings. There’s a very nice coffee shop & a classy gift shop, with lifts & stairs down into the exhibits & a cloakroom to leave your leathers & crash helmets in. It appears to be wheel-chair friendly but worth a call to check first I guess. I like museums but hate the stuffy, sterile atmosphere of most. This one’s different. It’s fun & interesting. Most of the stuff on show is within living memory -I’ve heard pensioners reminiscing over various details of times gone by, only to find myself doing the same over displays of 70s cameras |
& stereos! The A.A, who’s main headquarters is in Basingstoke at the moment, (though relocating soon), have a large display of uniforms, equipment & vehicles -including a Triumph younger than the one I used to blat around on! |
Milestones Museum is open Tuesday - Friday 10am - 5pm.
|
For more information on Milestones Museum Phone: 01256 477766
|