Collaboration sees rare car production books move museums

The transfer came after the historic documents were found in the archive at Beaulieu and curators were keen to re-unite them with similar books in the Midlands museum.

The ledgers record the production for three short-lived models of pre-war Morris cars, the Bullnose F-type 'Silent Six', the Morris Six of 1928/29, and the Empire Oxford.

Stephen Laing, Head of Collections & Engagement, British Motor Industry Heritage Trust says, “Many volumes of the 'Car Progress' books from the 1920s and 30s are housed in the archive at the British Motor Museum. We are so pleased to be able to re-unite these books from Beaulieu with the ones that reside at Gaydon.”

The books were ‘discovered’ when a researcher and Empire Oxford owner came across them in the archive of the National Motor Museum. Thanks to the close collaboration between the two museums, the Car Progress books that cover the three models have now been reunited with the records for the more regular models of that period.

Andrea Bishop, National Motor Museum Director of Collections and Engagement says, “Occasionally we discover items in our archive that would be more appropriately housed by other museums, whilst other documents come to us as they fit our collections policy. We are so pleased to work with our friends at the British Motor Museum on this project.”

More information on the archives of the two motoring museums is available at https://nationalmotormuseum.org.uk/collections and at https://www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk/archive.