National Motor Museum begins search for a transformational new home

This marks the next stage in the Trust’s long-term strategy to secure the future of the National Motor Museum. This strategy is focussed on reimagining and reinvigorating the Museum, engaging with new generations of motoring enthusiasts and diverse communities, while developing and preserving the Designated collection for generations to come. It also sees the Museum greatly expand its work in learning and community engagement, including a vision for the development of a training centre for heritage engineering apprenticeships, and by better fulfilling the Museum’s national remit by finding a suitable new home to reflect that and new ways to share the stories of motoring heritage more widely than ever before.

Over the last two years the Trust and the Montagu family have explored ways to achieve these ambitions in the Museum at Beaulieu through major donor investment and potential redevelopment but have now concluded that the next stage of the National Motor Museum’s ambitious plans and charitable purpose as the national repository of British motoring heritage can best be achieved through a move to a new home.

Robert MacGregor, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the National Motor Museum Trust said: “We are sad that the National Motor Museum will be leaving Beaulieu but are at the same time very excited about this once in a generation opportunity to transform the Museum for the future. We want to thank the Montagu family for founding the Trust in 1970 and for their continued support as the Museum finds a new home and embarks on the next stage of its journey. A new home can refresh our whole approach, enable us to make the collection more accessible, expand our educational and community impact, and ensure Britain’s motoring story remains relevant.”

Lord Montagu of Beaulieu said: “My father’s underlying ambition was to record and celebrate the story of motoring for the benefit of the nation. He founded the National Motor Museum Trust to do that, but its collections and activities have expanded beyond what anyone at the time envisaged. The charity’s long-term aims will now stand the best chance of being achieved if it can be based in a new home. I remain committed to honouring my father’s legacy by continuing to do all I can to support the trust. Wherever the National Motor Museum and its collections may be located in the future, Beaulieu will continue to develop as a leading south coast attraction, offering a comparable range of experiences to what people enjoy today, with cars remaining very much a part of our identity.”

The Trust will now begin exploring potential locations capable of supporting its long-term ambitions while safeguarding its internationally important collection and continuing public access. During this period, visitors to Beaulieu will see no change. 

Further updates will be provided as the process progresses.

National Motor Museum Trust

The National Motor Museum Trust Limited is a charitable organisation founded in 1972, which is responsible for the heritage collections the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu in the New Forest. The Trust has a world-famous collection of over 200 vehicles and associated motoring items on display at the National Motor Museum. An Accredited Museum, all its collections have been designated by Arts Council England as being of national and international importance. Its internationally acclaimed collection of more than 1.9 million items is cared for by the National Motor Museum Trust and includes historically significant motoring artifacts, film footage, images, documents and books. The nearby Collections Centre houses and cares for a vast array of motoring artifacts, photographic images, a specialist reference library, and a film and video library. For more information about its collection and services, see: www.nationalmotormuseum.org.uk