Sammy Miller Museum opens new extension
It’s been longer coming than anyone expected, but finally, on July 22, 2021, the Sammy Miller Motorcycle Museum at New Milton in the New Forest officially opened its new extension. After initial plans for an extension to the worldfamous museum were turned down, a revised scheme was accepted and work went ahead at an impressive rate. Then, of course, the first Covid-19 lockdown began – just two days after the extension had opened to the public! Thus, the formal opening had to be delayed until this summer.
But it was certainly worth waiting for as we were blessed with the sort of sunny, clear blue sky day you might sometimes think only exists on postcards of the New Forest. I have to confess that it is quite some years since I’d visited the Sammy Miller Museum (I don’t get out of the OBM Shed much!) and so I would have been looking forward to this day even without the new extension, but the new space is a huge boon to the collection.
A two-storey glass fronted building has added some 10,000 square feet to the museum, but if you’re thinking that this might mean lots of empty space, you’d be sorely mistaken. Already the new part of the museum is chock-a-block with motorcycles and motorcycling paraphernalia. In fact, it’s difficult to see how they could have squeezed in even another oil can!
The opening was to be performed, I’d read on the official invitation, by the Duke of Richmond. Now, it’s all very impressive to have a titled member of the aristocracy wielding the ribbon-cutting scissors, but, you might think, surely they might have found someone who knew a bit about motoring? Well, the 11th Duke of Richmond is probably better known to you – as he is to me – as Lord March of Goodwood, as he was called until 2017 when he inherited the title of the Duke of Richmond from his father. And Lord March is, of course, the man who founded the Goodwood Festival of Speed and the Goodwood Revival. Add to that the fact that he is president of the British Automobile Racing Club, patron of the TT Riders Association and an honorary member of the British Racing Drivers’ Club and I think you’ll agree that he was an ideal choice to host the opening with a man who is trials riding royalty.
With speeches made, the ribbon cut and the whole ceremony kept on track by compere Alan Cathcart, there was no immediate chance to enjoy the new exhibits for there was a display of a different nature out in the car park. As we reported in last month’s OBM, the museum has managed to reunite the three ISDT Ariels ridden by Sammy Miller, Ron Langston and Gordon Blakeway in 1958 and, even better, to get the three gentlemen themselves together with their bikes. Gordon and Sammy rode their works machines on several parade laps, accompanied by Ron’s son. Then some of the museum’s motorcycles, including the famous AJS ‘Porcupine’ E90, were wheeled out to be put through their paces in the car park. I suspect that, given time and a little encouragement, Sammy Miller would have brought out virtually every bike in the museum for a play.
And what of the new space? Well, it’s rather wonderful. The expanse of glass frontage means the extension has plenty of natural light and the machinery on display includes German, Japanese and Italian bikes, with my favourites being the Art Deco-looking 1938 Zundapp K800 flat four and the incredibly stylish 1955 Wooler. The latter is an amazing machine; not only elegant and ahead of its time, it boasted that it could be completely dismantled with the use of just one spanner and a screwdriver. It’s part of the British Motorcycle Charitable Trust’s collection and looked very happy in its home at the museum. Given that it was restored in the museum’s workshops, that’s hardly surprising.
I also took the opportunity to have a poke around the workshop, which is rather modest given the amount and quality of work it turns out each year. Sammy gave me a tour of what was currently on the benches, including Mary Driver’s ISDT Greeves and a beautiful 1923 Zehnder. This is where the man behind the museum spends much of his time although he did, during the opening speeches, say he’s now cut down from seven to six days (given that his good wife Rosemary beside him rolled her eyes at that, I’m not sure how true that is!). At 87 years old, his remarkable energy and indefatigability is undeniable, as is his enthusiasm for motorcycles; every one of the almost 500 bikes in his collection is important to him and he can tell you all about each one. I did gently point out to him that he appeared to have already filled every inch of the new museum space. “We might need another extension,” he said with a twinkle in his eye. I don’t think he was joking…