On a recent visit to the Midlands I went on a day trip to the Coventry Transport Museum where I spent about three hours admiring the bicycles, cars and other vehicles on display.
The transport museum in Coventry is right in the city center, just next to the bus terminal and the other main attractions. If you are visiting London as a tourist and need ideas for a day trip in England, then read this post to find out what to do in Coventry.
Visiting Coventry’s Transport Museum
Coventry is only two hours from London by car and there are plenty of National Express buses plus direct trains from Euston station. If you want to learn about history and British car manufacturing, then you should definitely head to the Coventry Transport Museum. Here you will find out how Coventry became the transport powerhouse of the world, first making bicycles, then motorbikes and finally cars.
Coventry’s Other Attractions
Once you are done with the transport museum in Coventry, you can also head out to town to check out Coventry’s modern architecture. Coventry was completely bombed out by the Germans during the 1940s and instead of rebuilding the old town like they did in Dresden, the city council decided to redraw the city center of Coventry from scratch.
In fact, even if there had been no war damage at all, they would have demolished the city anyway. That’s because there were already plans to create a modern city, built for the cars instead of maintaining the narrow medieval streets.
Now, in truth, Coventry has a feel of a town that’s seen better days but still it is worth a visit, if nothing else for a day trip to the Transport Museum and the cathedral. If you are interested in historic buildings, I have some bad news for you: nothing now remains from medieval Coventry!
Whatever was left after the war was destroyed by the bulldozers of city planners. If you arrive by car or bus, the first thing you will notice is the huge ring road encircling the town center of Coventry.
Parking in Coventry
There are various tower blocks along the ring road, serving as multi-storey car parks. You can drop your car off here and then go for a walk. Parking in Coventry costs about 60 pence per hour at the NCP car park or about a pound an hour at the others.
If you have time after the Transport Museum it is worth visiting at least the old cathedral, adjacent to the new cathedral. The old cathedral was pretty big before WWII but it got a direct hit from a German bomber. Instead of rebuilding, they decided to keep it as a memento of war and what can happen during an aerial bombardment of a city. There is now a memorial on site and just next door is the modern cathedral where the people of Coventry go to services.
Unfortunately I could not take any pictures inside as it was closed for a private memorial but rest assured the new cathedral looks amazing! Anyhow, without further ado here is my summary of my day trip to the Coventry Transport Museum!
What You Will See At The Transport Museum
Although the Coventry Transport Museum looks small from the outside it is pretty big and just keeps on giving! As I walked in through the main entrance I saw a few bicycles and motorbikes, so I started thinking my visit will probably only last about half an hour. I thought that should be fine since the museum is free!
The exhibits were very interesting and there was just the right amount of explanation with videos and lots of pictures. The museum was part-funded by the European Union and the European Regional Development Fund, plus the National Lottery, so I imagine that’s why it is free.
The main entrance is very modern and there is a shop and cafe if you need a break. At each period in history there are various videos explaining how those years influenced the development of Coventry and how people lived in town then.
There are also various displays to explain who could afford a car early in the 20th century and how Coventry became so important in the car manufacturing industry.
My favourite section was the exhibition with the old timers as well as the bicycles. As it turns out, there was a class struggle when the bicycles became popular: women wanted to cycle in trousers instead of skirts but men did not want to allow them! They said it was not puritan enough and if women wore trousers it would be impossible to distinguish them from men!
Class Wars & Bicycle Design
What I did not know until my visit to the Coventry Transport Museum is that bicycle design was actually influenced by this! The frame of women’s bikes are lower because women in skirts would have been unable to ride a bike otherwise! This in fact makes the women’s frame less sturdy and weaker than a man’s bike frame! I guess you learn something new every day!
Another Fascinating Fact
Something else I did not know was this: a teacher’s wage in the 1920s was about £125 per year, whereas an average car cost about £120. What I found fascinating was that the average wage in the country at the time was about £70 per year, so a teacher was earning almost twice as much as the average wage.
Compare that to today’s teachers! You are nowhere near twice the average wage in the UK, more like just about the same if you are lucky!
By the time I got to the WWII exhibits and the modern day bits I was getting tired so I did not pay that much attention to those. However, I did notice that the last large-scale car factory in Coventry was closed down by the French in 2006. I found it absolutely fascinating how the proud British completely sold out to the French and Germans who then duly closed everything down and moved production back home.
I bet now with Brexit and all they keep saying Coventry will return to the good old days and it might even become the powerhouse of the British car industry once more…! Well, I am not going to hold my breath but I am willing to wager a bet for the opposite!
Opening Times and Tickets
