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The Lakeland Motor Museum is a museum now located at Backbarrow, Cumbria, England which houses a collection of classic cars, motorcycles, bicycles, pedal cars and motoring related items and memorabilia and an exhibition dedicated to the
land and water speed record activities of Sir Malcolm Campbell and his son Donald.
HISTORY
The Museum was established in Grange-over-Sands in 1978 as an extra attraction for the Holker Hall stately home. The museum was created by
Donald Sidebottom to contain the collection of cars and related memorabilia that he had been collecting since the 1960s.
After more than thirty years at Holker Hall, the museum relocated to the site of the former Reckitt's Blue Dye Works carton packaging sheds at Backbarrow in 2010.
THE COLLECTION
The museum features a unique collection of over 30,000 motoring related exhibits including a 1920s garage re-creation. Amongst the cars in the museum's collection are a 1913 Star 15.9, a 1936 Bentley 4¼-litre which was owned by
Donald Campbell, a
World War II Willys
Jeep and a 1955
Jaguar XK140. The museum also houses an exhibition dedicated to Sir Malcolm Campbell and his son Donald and their land and
water speed record
activities.
Donald
Campbell's K7 world water speed record boat
CONTACTS
Museum of Lakeland Life & Industry
Abbot Hall,
Kendal
Cumbria, LA9 5AL
Tel 01539 722464
Fax 01539 722494
email info@lakelandmuseum.org.uk
Old Blue Mill, Backbarrow,
Ulverston, LA12 8TA.
Tel
01539 530400
Location : Newby Bridge / Haverthwaite
Grid Ref : SD 356854
Lakeland Arts is a company limited by guarantee which is registered in England and Wales with company number 8162578. Registered office Abbot Hall, Kendal, Cumbria, LA9 5AL. Lakeland Arts is also a registered charity, registration number 1153001.
K777
crossing the lake at around 80 mph
Blackwell, The Arts & Crafts House
Bowness-on-Windermere
Cumbria
LA23 3JT
Tel 015394 46139
Fax 015394 88486
email info@blackwell.org.uk
Abbot Hall Art Gallery & Museum of Lakeland Life & Industry
Kendal
Cumbria
LA9 5AL
Tel 01539 722464
Fax 01539 722494
email info@abbothall.org.uk
Windermere Steamboat Museum
Rayrigg Road
Windermere
Cumbria
LA23 1BN
Tel 015394 45565
Fax 015394 88486
email info@steamboats.org.uk
Lakeland Arts is a company limited by guarantee which is registered in England and Wales with company number 8162578. Our registered office is at Abbot Hall, Kendal, Cumbria, LA9 5AL. Lakeland Arts is a registered charity, registration number 1153001.
South Lakeland District Council
Tel: 0845 050 4434
info@southlakeland.gov.uk
South Lakeland House
Lowther Street
Kendal
Cumbria LA9 4DQ
Ulverston Local Link
Tel: 0845 050 4434
info@southlakeland.gov.uk
Town Hall, Ulverston
Cumbria
LA12 7AR
K7
replica on display
GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION - GETTING TO THE MUSEUM
From the South by Car
Leave the M6 at junction 36 and follow the A590 signed ‘South Lakes’ (dual carriageway) for six miles. Take the exit signed ‘South Kendal (A6)’ and follow the signs for ‘Town Centre’. Once in the one-way system get into the right hand lane. Pass the parish church, on your right, then take the first right into the public car park signed ‘Abbot Hall’. Pass through the gate at the end of the South Lakeland District Council car park (Peppercorn Lane) into the Abbot Hall car park. Revenue from Abbot Hall car park goes towards the upkeep of the Gallery and Museum.
From the North by Car
Leave the M6 at junction 39 and follow the A6 signed ‘Kendal’. Once in Kendal follow signs for ‘M6 Junction 36’ and ‘A65’. Keep right, following the river, until the road comes to a junction. Still keeping in the right hand lane cross the bridge and take a sharp right, signed ‘Town Centre’. Stay in the right hand lane. Pass the parish church then take the first right into the public car park signed ‘Abbot Hall’. Pass through the gate at the end of the
South Lakeland District Council car park (Peppercorn Lane) into the Abbot Hall car park. Revenue from Abbot Hall car park goes towards the upkeep of the Gallery and Museum.
Parking
The Abbot Hall pay and display car park is located through the gate at the end of the South Lakeland District Council car park (Peppercorn Lane), between the Gallery and the Museum. Revenue from Abbot Hall car park goes towards the upkeep of the Gallery and Museum.
We will refund the first hour’s parking on purchases of £5 or over at the Gallery and Museum Shop(s) or Coffee House (excluding admissions).
Disabled parking bays are free.
By Train
Oxenholme is the nearest main-line railway station and a connecting train will bring you into Kendal (less than 1 mile away from Abbot Hall) with a level walk along the river.
GPS Location
N54°19.38 , W2°44.72
The
Daytona 300mph Blue Bird replica at Lakeland Museum
RECOVERY OF BLUEBIRD K7
The wreckage of Campbell's craft was recovered by the Bluebird Project between October 2000, when the first sections were raised, and May 2001, when
Campbell's body was recovered. The largest section, representing approximately two-thirds of the main hull, had been salvaged on 8 March 2001.
A diving team led by Bill Smith was responsible for finding the wreckage.
The K7 is the most reproduced water speed record boat to date, with the UK
K777 and Barmera,
Australian projects being the latest - and let us not forget the replica
at Filching
Manor Motor Museum at Polegate, Sussex.
The
K7 on its final run 4 January 1967
Campbell's last words on his final run were, via radio intercom:
“ Pitching a bit down here...Probably from my own wash...Straightening up now on track...Rather closer to Peel Island...Tramping like mad...and er... Full power...Tramping like hell here... I can't see much... and the water's very bad indeed...I can't get over the top... I'm getting a lot of bloody row in here... I can't see anything... I've got the bows out... I'm
going!....ugh ”
ELECTRIC
BLUEBIRD
A relatively recent acquisition by this museum is the converted
formula-ford that was built by Bluebird Electric Limited, a now defunct
company that was begun by Nelson
Kruschandl and Donald
Wales - in respect of the signing of an Agreement as to development of
Kruschandl's designs for the BE1
and BE2 electric land speed
record cars.
On
September the 20th 1998, the Formula Ford conversion above had to be towed
back to the other end of Pendine beach after it ran out of battery power
on the outward run. The car was simply too heavy to be in the running to
get anywhere near the then land speed record. It was a hasty conversion
following a legal dispute where all of the money that had been raised for
the BE2, was channeled by Don Wales to building this technological
dinosaur. Kruschandl had raised significant sums from Sir
Terence Conran and Bluebird Holiday Homes (Bourne Leisure), giving
presentations that netted first £110,000 and then £45,000 - yet he
claims that he never saw a penny of these money contributions that his
cars and his promotions were instrumental in raising. The only sums that
were paid across (for motors, controllers and batteries) were from London
Electricity for the BE1 to be motorized and under-lit for appearances at
the London Arena and Olympia.
Chris
Humberstone converted the Formula Ford for Bluebird
Electric Limited, under the directorship of Don Wales. Sheffield
University provided the motors and Michelin the rather wide tyres that
increased rolling resistance, with batteries coming from Hawker.
BLUEBIRD
ELECTRIC LTD - This was the company that built the fated electric
Humberstone/Sheffield car that is incorrectly stated on the Lakeland
website as being built by: "Don Wales Developments. It is unclear how
such a glaring error could have come to be published and we will draw the
attention of the proprietors to the historic inaccuracy that at the moment
paints a different picture to that between 1996 - 1998. We understand that
Mr Wales bought the car from the above company for around £6,000. A bit
of a bargain you might think, considering that more than £300,000 of
sponsor's money went into the making.
SAD
SAND SAGA - Towed back using what looks like bed-sheets tied together.
Obviously Don's engineers had their sums wrong, so much so that they never
even thought to bring a tow rope. The team's website reported the car
running out of power as it happened. Later, the official line was that
there were technical difficulties. Some years later Joe
Wales crashed the next electric car in the series that Don Wales
drove, this one built by Martin Reece by another company to bear the
Bluebird name. We think that that company is also now defunct. Pendine
Sands appears no longer friendly to descendents of Sir Malcolm.
LINKS
Visit
Cumbria Lakeland
Museum http://www.visitcumbria.com/sl/lakeland-motor-museum/ http://www.lakelandmuseum.org.uk/ Lakeland_Motor_Museum http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakeland_Motor_Museum Coniston-power-boat-records-week-gets-underway-k777-is-launched Bluebird-lookalike-takes-a-trip-on-coniston-water Boat-design
k777 bluebird Curse-Bluebird-Replica-Campbells-speedboat-sinks-Coniston K777
Club Daily
Mail Bluebird speedboat http://www.cumbriacrack.com/2011/10/31/coniston-power-boat-records-week-gets-underway-k777-is-launched/ http://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/bluebird-lookalike-takes-a-trip-on-coniston-water-1.893900 http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/boat-design/k777-bluebird-40452.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2057326/Curse-Bluebird-Replica-Campbells-speedboat-sinks-Coniston.html http://www.k777club.com/ Rebuilt wreckage RC
groups forums http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1959632
Bluebird lives on: The first road car to use our blue bird trademark is an electrically powered
long distance runner that uses cartridges to recharge instantly (in under a
minute). This is achieved with built in
Bluebird™
power loaders, enabling the car to
recharge at any road stop where a cartridge is waiting to be picked up. The
first event where this will be tested is the UK Cannonball Jogle ZEV Run, a road
trip of close on 900 miles from John
o'Groats to Lands End.
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