What is the British Commercial Vehicle Museum?

The small Lancashire town of Leyland is synonymous with one thing: the production, across many decades, of a host of familiar British lorries and buses. The factory in the town is no longer producing vehicles, alas: however, the good news is that a part of the works site is now a fascinating museum, dedicated to documenting a century of British commercial vehicles.

So, get your ticket from the conductor and hop on board as we introduce the rather wonderful British Commercial Vehicle Museum.

Leyland Motors: a short history

Appropriately, the Museum is housed in a building that was formerly part of Leyland Motors, manufacturers of lorries, buses and trolleybuses for over 80 years.

This company has, of course, a hugely significant place in the history of British motor manufacturing. With its acquisitions of first Triumph (in 1960) and then Rover (1967), Leyland later spread into car manufacturing. Its merger with British Motor Holdings, in 1968, produced the British Leyland Motor Corporation, which then became simply British Leyland after nationalisation in 1975.

British Leyland, later BL, was a name synonymous with British cars – everything from the stolid Austin Allegro to the daring Rover SD1 – throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Yes, among the British Leyland roster you’ll find several of the cars for which we most often find ourselves providing classic car insurance, for young drivers and more seasoned motorists alike.

And it all began here, in the small Lancashire town of Leyland. A quiet agricultural settlement until the end of the 19th Century, Leyland grew up around the lorry and bus manufacturer that took its name.

It all started in 1896 when two Leyland families, the Sumners and the Spurriers, founded the Lancashire Steam Motor Company (LSMC). The company’s first productions included steam-powered lawn mowers, but their first actual vehicle was a steam-powered goods van with a capacity of 1.5 tonnes (you can see a picture on the company’s own history site). By 1904, the LSMC were also building petrol wagons, such as the splendidly named ‘Pig’ (beginning a Leyland tradition of naming its products after animals).

The company was renamed Leyland Motors in 1907, after the takeover of another local firm, Coulthards of Preston. Other standout early products included the Leyland Eight luxury car of 1920. A version of the Eight was driven by the Welsh driver and engineer J.G. Parry-Thomas at the Brooklands race track in Surrey.

The Spurrier dynasty maintained control of Leyland Motors right up until the retirement of Henry Spurrier in 1964. Among other things, the Spurrier dynasty was well known for its extremely strong excellent labour relations – indeed, the story was told that Spurrier-era Leyland never lost a day's production through industrial action.

Leyland became, throughout its life, famous for its lorries, including the Beaver, Buffalo and Lynx from the 1930s; the Comet and Hippo from the ‘40s; and subsequent popular designs including the GG, Terrier, Landmaster and Bison. Leyland trucks – whether in simple flatbed form or modified for specialist purposes – were familiar sights up and down the British Isles for decades.

The company was also justly famous for its buses. Indeed, Leyland was responsible for various milestones in the story of bus manufacture. For example, it was one of the first manufacturers to devise separate chassis designs for buses, as opposed to sharing platforms with trucks as other companies were doing.

Leyland’s bespoke designs had a lower floor level, which meant that passengers could board more easily. The company’s chief designer, John George Rackham, brought his experience with Chicago’s Yellow Coach Company and, in the 1920s, created two bus ranges – the Tiger and the Titan – that would change the look and design of buses for many years.

Then, after the Second World War, Leyland created another milestone – the Atlantean rear-engined double-decker bus , which was maintained in production for three decades from 1956. The Atlantean’s great trick was to mount the engine at the rear, meaning that the passenger entrance could be at the front by the driver – thus no need for a bus conductor. Atlanteans became familiar sights in London, Manchester, Merseyside, Portsmouth and many other UK urban areas.

The Commercial Vehicle Museum site

The particular building that now houses the British Commercial Vehicle Museum was part of Leyland Motors’ South Works and, for most of its working life, was home to the Customer Inspection Department. This was where Leyland’s various lorries, buses and trolleybuses were given an exacting inspection by prospective purchasers, before being dispatched to their new jobs around the country. It’s fitting, then, that the British Commercial Vehicle Museum is housed in a building where buses and tricks have been closely inspected and pored over for many decades.

In 1983, the building was transformed into a museum whose aims were to preserve Britain’s long and illustrious heritage in the design and manufacture of both buses and trucks alike. To begin with, it was a strictly seasonal operation. This was because the large hangar-like space was too cold to welcome visitors during the winter months, and the roof required frequent repairs to keep the rain out. Its fortunes have improved markedly since then, however: a mix of Heritage Lottery Funding and generous support from several sponsors has helped to transform the space into an all-year-round venue, complete with new heating and lighting, a welcoming café and a state-of-the-art conference suite.

Today’s museum maintains those original aims – to preserve, for future generations, vehicles of special significance that were designed and produced by British manufacturers, along with all related archive material. We salute those aims: in fact, they are very similar to what we aim to help our customers with, here at Lancaster. In providing classic car insurance for young drivers new to vintage motors and more experienced owners alike, we’re keen to help preserve our wonderful motoring heritage for future generations.

The British Commercial Vehicle Museum invites visitors to enjoy its impressive display of commercial transport from our past. It also aims to encourage future generations to learn how our engineers laid the groundwork for so many global motor vehicle technologies. After all, Leyland Trucks was, for many decades, a world leader in the production of lorries and buses. It’s this kind of respect for the vehicles of the past that we hope to help spread with our own classic car insurance for young drivers – and older classics fans, too.

What you’ll see at the Museum

Aside from the vehicles themselves – which we’ll come to shortly – visitors to the Museum can follow a pictorial timeline around the walls. This documents the progression of British commercial vehicles from the era of horse-drawn buses all the way up to today’s pioneering hybrid and electric vehicles.

As to the vehicles themselves, various touch-screen panels provide a nice mix of fascinating information and interactive challenges for visitors of all ages. The latter includes the moment when you get to climb into a real truck driver’s seat, get your hands on the steering wheel and follow a route made by a real truck.

There’s also a wealth of absorbing stories – about both the vehicles themselves, and the lives they enhanced. There are eyewitness accounts of how people lived, and got around, in the time of the horse-drawn bus. You’ll find out why, as a steam lorry driver, you would routinely finish the working day with your body covered in oil, grease and coal dust. You’ll also learn what working life was like for long-distance goods vehicle drivers, before the invention of the sleeper cab.

Elsewhere, the Museum’s Archive Department is a hugely valuable resource, containing comprehensive records of commercial vehicle production and use dating as far back as the 1890s. These resources include thousands of engineering drawings, technical publications and photographs. Taken as a whole, these provide a comprehensive history of vehicle design and production by a selection of the sector’s most famous names.

These include Leyland, of course, but also other important names from the history of UK commercial vehicles – such as Albion, Thornycroft, Scammell Lorries, the Associated Equipment Company, and the Maudslay Motor Company. You may not have heard of the latter two, but in the first half of the century both were big players on the UK motor manufacturing landscape.

Maudslay, for example, was based in Coventry – one of the many illustrious marques and vehicles to come out of that city. Indeed, we take a closer look at Coventry’s rich automotive past, and some of its best-loved classic cars, in this feature.

Founded in 1902, Maudslay continued until 1948, when it was taken over by the Associated Equipment Company (AEC). Joining with Manchester’s Crossley Motors, the new group went by a brand new name: Associated Commercial Vehicles (ACV) Limited. You will find vehicles made by these manufacturers, and many more, on your tour around the museum.

The Museum’s vehicles in detail

The British Commercial Vehicle Museum has an impressive roster of trade and other special-purpose vehicles from down the decades. Let’s take a closer look.

The ‘Popemobile’ (1982)

One of the most famous vehicles on display is a purpose-built, armoured ‘Popemobile’ dating from Pope John Paul II’s visit to Britain back in 1982. The Pope’s itinerary took him from London to Cardiff, via Canterbury, Coventry, Liverpool, Manchester, York, Edinburgh and Glasgow. It was the first visit to the UK by an incumbent Pope, and British Leyland was specially commissioned to build a pair of 24-tonne armour-plated vehicles for the visit. These ‘Popemobiles’ were coachbuilt onto Leyland Constructor chassis.

In fact, BL supplied two Leyland truck-based Popemobiles for the visit: this one was for the England leg of the tour. The other was used for the Scottish route: it was sold at auction in 2006 and, appropriately enough, has ended up in the Albion Museum in Dumfries. British Leyland also supplied, for the tour, an additional pair of ‘Popemobiles’ based on Range Rovers.

AEC Mammoth Major 8 (1954)

This was the heaviest truck produced by the Associated Equipment Company (AEC). The example housed at the Museum was the third generation of the Mammoth Major, which was designated as a ‘6’ or an ‘8’ according to its wheel configuration. The Mammoth Major 8 had a payload of 12-15 tonnes: that pulling power was supplied by a 125 horsepower engine under the bonnet. This unit could propel the truck at a maximum speed of 65 kilometres per hour (40mph).

AEC was in existence from 1912 to 1979: indeed, it was one of the most prolific British lorry manufacturers during World War One. As we saw earlier, AEC would later join forces with Maudslay and Crossley to form Associated Commercial Vehicles (ACV).

Leyland Comet (1957)

Leyland had been producing trucks known as Comets since 1947. The particular Comet that you’ll see at the Museum, however, is an example of the new ‘cab-over’ design that he company introduced from 1952 onwards. This new look featured the driver’s cab directly over the front axle, rather than set back behind the bonnet as before.

Leyland Lioness (1927)

The Museum is also the proud owner of a Leyland Lioness, a bus that was built by the Lancashire firm from the 1920s onwards. This particular Lioness (registration YT 3738) was bought in 1927 by King George V, and may have been used as staff transport – and/or for ferrying guests on hunting parties.

It was later sold to Jersey Motor Transport in 1938, and would have seen service while the island was under Nazi control during World War Two. It later returned to the British in the late 1960s, and underwent a thorough restoration in 1995. Now taxed and roadworthy, YT 3738 is on long-term loan to the Museum.

ERF Number 1 flatbed truck (1933)

You’ll also find the first chassis ever built by the British truck manufacturer ERF. The truck in question dates from 1933 – the very year the company was founded, in Sandbach, Cheshire. ERF took its name from the initials of its founder, Edwin Richard Foden.

The latter had recently left Foden, the company founded by his father, because he was convinced that the future of commercial vehicles was in diesel, rather than steam power. This turned out, of course, to be fairly prophetic. Continuing to base themselves in Sandbach, ERF made its own chassis and cabs, sourcing engines from a variety of companies.

Much later, the outfit was bought by Canadian commercial vehicle manufacturer Western Star. The Cheshire factory was eventually closed in 2002.

Guy ‘Model J’ flatbed truck (1922)

Based in Wolverhampton, Guy Motors made cars, lorries, buses, and trolleybuses. It took its name from founder Sydney Guy. He had been the Works Manager for the nearby firm of Sunbeam (creators, much later, of the iconic Alpine GT soft-top) when, in 1914, he decided to strike out alone.

The company’s product was a 30 hundredweight lorry which took the innovative step of using a lightweight, pressed steel frame. This was in contrast to the heavier, rolled steel frames that most trucks were using at the time.

Guy Motors were present at the 1920 Commercial Motor Show at London’s Olympia – the show’s first appearance after the war. It was there to present its new 2.5-tonne commercial chassis. This later developed into a very successful six-wheel heavy load carrier, of which the Museum has a beautifully preserved example.

Scammell Mechanical Horse

A lightweight mechanical tractor designed to replace horses on local delivery services (hence the name), the Mechanical Horse was designed for Scammell Lorries in 1933. Economical, reliable and extremely manoeuvrable, the design was taken up by many UK railway companies, as well as the Post Office and the military.

The Mechanical Horse was available in two sizes, capable of pulling loads of three and six tonnes respectively. These were powered by Scammell's own side-valve petrol engine, displacing 1125 cubic centimetres for the three-tinner and 2043cc for its bigger sibling.
Back to that legendary manoeuvrability: even with a 16-foot trailer attached, the Scammell Mechanical Horse could effect a 360-degree turn in under 20 feet. Compare that with the 36-foot turning circle of, say, the modern Vauxhall Astra and you will see that this was a very nimble little workhorse. With a road speed of around 20mph, it was also well suited to local deliveries.

Splendidly, there is an owners’ and enthusiasts’ club for this innovative little vehicle. Here at Lancaster, we are huge fans of classic vehicle owner’s clubs: we’ve rounded up a few of our favourite model-specific clubs in this feature (continued in parts two and three), but, honestly, whatever classic you own or are interested in, there’s likely to be an owners’ club for you. Membership of a group like this is an excellent investment, bringing a wealth of benefits including access to a community of experts – and likely club discounts on your classic car insurance for young drivers and older owners alike.

Leyland Tiger Cub bus (1956)

A lightweight underfloor-engined chassis manufactured by Leyland between 1952 and 1970, the Tiger Cub was first shown on the Leyland stand at the 1952 Commercial Motor Show. That first vehicle was wearing the colours of Ribble Motor Services, a regional bus operator based in nearby Preston.

During its near two-decade life, the bus was most commonly seen in Wales, where bus company Western Welsh had a fleet of 271. Up in Scotland, Walter Alexander & Sons took 200 Tiger Cubs between 1955 and 1964. They were also a common sight in Edinburgh, with the Edinburgh Corporation purchasing 100 buses in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

By 1969 the Tiger Cub was on its way out, replaced in British Leyland’s single-decker bus offerings by the Bristol LH.

The bus also saw service abroad, in Ghana, New Zealand, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Denmark, the Netherlands, Portugal, India and Jamaica.

Events and activities

As well as its permanent collections, the Museum also hosts various special events, both in its indoor Exhibition Hall and in the car parks outside. Indoor events range from craft and collectors’ fairs to model makers’ exhibitions and even a beer festival. The outside areas, meanwhile, host events including Spring and Autumn Transport Shows, The Great British Lorry Day, and The American Road Show, a feast of big trucks, souped-up cars, and country and western music.

The Museum also welcomes motoring societies and classic car clubs to host their own gatherings and events. With space for more than a hundred vehicles, it would certainly make an excellent place for a static classic car show. And, indeed, cover for static shows like these is just one of the many benefits that we offer as part of our classic car insurance for young drivers.

Classic car insurance for young drivers from the specialists

As you can see, the British Commercial Vehicle Museum makes a fascinating place to visit. If you’re interested in vehicles from our past, you may well own and get much pleasure from a classic car – or, as a young driver, you may be planning to start your classic car ownership journey soon. Exciting times!

The good news is that, here at Lancaster, we can offer classic car insurance for young drivers as well as more experienced owners.

Why not get in touch with us to arrange some classic car insurance for young drivers today?

Policy benefits, features and discounts offered may very between insurance schemes or cover selected and are subject to underwriting criteria. Information contained within this article is accurate at the time of publishing but may be subject to change.