Aldridge Transport Museum, home to the Aston Manor Road Transport Museum's collection of vehicles is an independent

transport museum A transport museum is a museum that holds collections of transport items, which are often limited to land transport (road and rail)—including old cars, motorcycles, trucks, trains, trams/streetcars, buses, trolleybuses and Coach (vehicle), coach ...

Aldridge Aldridge is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall in the West Midlands, England. It is historically, a village that was part of Staffordshire until 1974. The town is from Brownhills, from Walsall, from Sutton Coldfield and from ...

, Walsall, England. Until December 2011 the museum occupied the former

Birmingham Corporation Tramways Birmingham Corporation Tramways operated a network of tramways in Birmingham from 1904 until 1953. It was the largest narrow-gauge tramway network in the UK, and was built to a gauge of . It was the fourth largest tramway network in the UK behi ...

Witton Tram Depot, in the

Aston Aston is an area of inner Birmingham, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Located immediately to the north-west of Birmingham city centre, Central Birmingham, Aston constitutes a wards of the United Kingdom, war ...

district of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, run by a

registered charity A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, Religion, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definitio ...

Buses at the Aston Manor Transport Museum - geograph

The museum hosted the 40th birthday party of

Charles, Prince of Wales Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, a ...

, on 14 November 1988, when he formally opened the museum. Following a decision by

Birmingham City Council Birmingham City Council is the local authority for the city of Birmingham in the West Midlands, England. Birmingham has had an elected local authority since 1838, which has been reformed several times. Since 1974 the council has been a metropo ...

to cease funding the rent on the Witton Tram Depot, it closed in October 2011. Between then and December that year, the collection was moved to the Beecham Business Park, home to the former Jack Allen dustcart assembly plant, in nearby Aldridge. Subsequently the museum moved again, this time a short distance within Aldridge, to its present location in Shenstone Drive, Aldridge, where it opened to the public in July 2013. Since reopening, the museum has retained its bus collection but also added an increased number of light commercial vehicles on display. The museum, which is operated entirely by volunteers, is open on Tuesdays, Saturdays and Sundays from 10:30 to 16:00 throughout the year excluding the Christmas Holiday period. On a number of weekends throughout the year there are special events with a free bus service from Walsall (Hatherton Street) to the museum and back using classic buses. The museum's Classic buses also run free of charge on certain event days to the Chasewater Railway, Lichfield, and around Barr Beacon. The vehicles displayed in the museum are changed over with those which are in safe storage off site giving variety to the exhibits on display at any one time.

References

1988 establishments in England Museums established in 1988 Museums in Birmingham, West Midlands Transport museums in England {{UK-museum-stub