Woolly says – Having arrived at all things Glamping we had unpacked and introduced Handsome Jack to the farm dogs, geese, swans, cows and the river before we headed off to catch up with Nanty Carys and Nuncle Les for a couple of days. With the glorious sunshine we are having it was a great drive down with Zoe at the wheel and Jo enjoying the break from driving.
A warm welcome and a hot meal greeted our arrival followed by lots of chats and news. The following morning saw the wonderful sun arriving once again we headed off to take in some motorcycles.
The Sammy Miller Museum, Sammy Miller MBE is a motorcycling legend, 11 times British Trials Champion and winner of over 1400 competition events across various disciplines, all whilst developing and maintaining his own machines. Throughout his remarkable career, he still managed to find the time to restore rare and interesting motorcycles, transforming unrecognisable ‘rust buckets’ into stunning factory condition and perfect working order. These he kept as a private collection until 1980 when he opened his collection to the public to share in the sights and sounds of these iconic machines. In 1996, Sammy acquired an old farmhouse in New Milton that had fallen into disrepair. Seeing the potential for the perfect location to showcase the museum exhibits, the Museum is now regarded as housing one of the finest collections of fully restored motorcycles in the world, including factory racers and exotic prototypes.
The walk to the entrance led us past old petrol pumps which were lovely to see.
The first bike we saw took the small mammoth into a state of ecstasy, Sammy Millers Race to Dakar motorbike.
Having studied it in great detail and reminisced about our trip to Senegal we finally prised him off and headed past the fountains and flower beds and into the museum.
Woolly says – So many bikes to look at and so many different makes from the classic Harleys to the lesser known Jawa.
One area was full of Royal Enfield’s dating back to the first ones produced and reminding us of the streets of India.
Finding a section of Jap bikes Jo set about looking out for her old make of Suzuki, sadly none were on show, but Honda’s, Kawasaki’s and Triumphs were in plentiful supply.
We reached an area dedicated to the racing bikes and as my human drooled over a picture of the late Barry Sheen I marvelled at the aerodynamics of the former racers.
History was everywhere and many many rare finds dating back to the first produced in the late 1800’s which had been lovingly restored.
Needing a little fresh air, we headed to the pit stop for coffee and cakes and checked in with the alpacas and other farm animals that live at the museum, revived we headed back inside and headed upstairs.
Lines and lines of motorbikes filled the space, square tanks, rounded tanks and ones that didn’t even look like petrol tanks.
A small section at the rear was packed with sewing machines typewriters and radios.
Along one wall was a multitude of display cases showing everyone of Sammy Millers trophies and medals, I chuckled to myself thinking that Mrs Miller must have been very glad to see them all put in the museum to save on hours of dusting.
A whole section was dedicated to the Norton bikes taking us back to the first one all the way through to the most modern.
My small grubby companion was even more delighted to find a make called Mammoth!
With all the galleries completed we headed back for an early tea with the relatives before Nuncle Les drove us to the wonderful town of Hovis better known as Shaftsbury which we had enjoyed on a previous visit, to see the Wareham Whalers (https://www.facebook.com/warehamwhalers) who performed wonderfully getting everyone singing along and clapping.
A wonderful day and evening I was looking forward to the morrow and what that might bring.