Tour of the Reserve Vehicle Collection

Discover our exciting Reserve Vehicle Collection on an expert-led tour of The Roger Jones MBE Vehicle Hangar (also known as A-Site).

We have designed these tours to offer you a behind-the-scenes view of the work we do to preserve our unique collection of repair and recovery vehicles, as well as a more in-depth discussion of the vehicles' histories.

We kindly ask that you please read the following carefully and thoroughly if you are interested in attending the tour. The Roger Jones MBE Vehicle Hangar is a working environment first and foremost and facilities differ from the museum itself.

Tour details

Facilities

Booking info

Tour details

Timings

This tour is taking place on Saturday 25 July. Other dates may be available, please check our Talks and Tours page.

The tour will begin at 13.00.

You must arrive no later than 12.45 at Reception. You will be directed to a meeting area, where a health and safety briefing will be delivered. 

The tour will last approximately 2-3 hours. 

The museum is open from 10.00-16.30, Tuesday-Sunday. Last entry is at 15.00. Please make note of these timings if you wish visit the museum's galleries before your tour - this is offered as a combined ticket below. Find more information to Plan your Visit.

Travel

The Roger Jones MBE Vehicle Hangar is located approximately 1.5 miles from the museum. You will be expected to make your own way there and there is no public transport to the location.

Following your health and safety briefing at the museum, all visitors will then follow in a convoy to the hangar via your own vehicles. You will also be provided with a map should you decide to make a booking.

An additional briefing will be delivered outside the hangar once everyone has arrived.

The environment

The Reserve Vehicle Collection comprises around 80 examples of armoured, tracked and wheeled repair and recovery vehicles from a variety of the world's Armed Forces.

The hangar is a working environment where engineering and repair work regularly takes place. The space is not, and has not been designed as, a museum. Given that it is a workshop, the vehicles will not be presented in the same way they are in our galleries, but you will still be able to see all that are there. The tour guide will provide verbal explanations about the vehicles, and a written summary can be provided to those who request one.

Please let us know when booking your ticket if there is a specific vehicle in the collection you wish to see. The museum occasionally takes vehicles from the collection to various shows and displays around the UK. Whilst we cannot guarantee availability, we may be able to recommend the most suitable date.

Facilities

Refreshments are not included in this offer and are not available at the hangar.

Crown's Café is open from 09.30-15.00, Tuesday-Saturday and 10.00-15.00 on Sunday. Please make note of these timings if you would like to get some food or drink before your tour.

The toilet facilities at the hangar are very basic. The toilets are unisex and there is no disabled access. We recommend using our museum facilities before your tour, ensuring you leave plenty of time to gather at Reception, and/or on your return to the museum.

Accessibility

This is accessibility information for the Roger Jones MBE Vehicle Hangar only. Please see our Accessibility page for information on the facilities in the regular museum building.

There is ample parking at the hangar and you can park adjacent to the entrance if that would be helpful. Please let our staff know before heading out in the convoy if you wish to do so.

While the external space outside the hangar is not level, it is traversable with care. Internally, the hangar's floor is level, but there is one point where the access is slightly narrower than normal.

There is no seating in the hangar, but you are welcome to bring a wheelchair or a walking stick seat with you. The museum has a wheelchair that can be borrowed, but these arrangements are on a first-come, first-served basis and we ask that you please contact us in advance should you wish to use the wheelchair. You will be expected to transport it to the hangar and back to the museum yourself, and you will be liable for any damage it sustains.

There are no audio-visual interactive presentations in the hangar, but you may hear sounds of work being conducted on the vehicles. This will be kept to a minimum for the duration of the tour, but some noise may be unavoidable. The tour will be presented verbally, so please do let the tour guide know if you have hearing difficulties and appropriate adjustments can be made.

The ceiling lighting in the hangar provides overhead illumination and is very bright.

Photography and filming

You are welcome to take photos during your visit, as long as they are for personal, private, non-commercial use. We ask that you do not film during our Reserve Vehicle Collection Tours.

We ask that you do not use flash photography or a tripod, which could cause distractions and trip hazards to other visitors. Please also be respectful of other visitors' privacy.

If you would like to photograph or film inside our Reserve Vehicle Collection for research, model making or any other public and/or commercial purpose, we ask that you please contact the museum ahead of your visit.

Booking information

Pre-booking online is essential for these tours.

Ticket options

Anyone aged 13-18 must be accompanied by a responsible adult when participating in a tour. Children under 13 are not allowed to participate in the tours for health and safety reasons.

The museum reserves the right to cancel the tour for any reason. We will endeavour to provide all attendees with as much notice as possible if we decide not to proceed and you will be offered the next available date or a full refund will be supplied under these circumstances. Please email [email protected] for any communication.

As part of your booking confirmation, you will receive a Terms and Conditions document, please read this carefully as this will include full details of timings, arrival and accessibility information.

Should the tour become fully booked, we will hold a waiting list in case of cancellations. Please get in touch if this becomes the case. You may also wish to consider attending on a different date, if one is available. See our Talks and Tours page for additional dates.

If you have any questions about these tours we haven't answered above, please get in touch.