Donations bussed in to keep region's transport museum running

Books and model vehicles are among the items that have been given to Aldridge Transport Museum in Walsall.

The museum will either sell on the items to collectors or put them up for sale in the shop at its Shenstone Drive site.

Martin Fisher, chairman of the committee that runs the museum, said: "During the lockdown, a lot of people seemed to be clearing houses and things like that.

"We have had lots of model vehicles, huge quantities of books, transports books, namely about buses which is the main part of the museum. But also about railways and even aircraft books.

"We have had artefacts, there is a sign about buses to Villa Park and the Hawthorns. Actual memorabilia from some of the local bus companies. We are wading through this huge pile trying to work out what to do with it.

"We are absolutely delighted that people have donated.

"All we would say is, because of the sheer quantity that we have had, we have to be more choosing with what we accept.

"We don't want car manuals, we don't want magazines which we used to take, we just can't cope with them.

"Books and toys and certainly any of the memorabilia we are absolutely delighted for people to give them to us.

"We have also had transport collections of photographs.

"They are very valuable to us because they can go into our collection or if they do duplicate what we have got, we will sell them onto transport enthusiasts.

"We are an entirely voluntarily funded museum, we don't receive grants or anything like that.

"We have a fairly high running cost due to the cost of the building.

"All of these things, if we can get a little bit of income from them, that helps us keep the museum running."