Cotswold Motoring Museum

Founded in 1978 by motoring enthusiast Mike Cavanagh, who shipped over a collection amassed during 20 years in South Africa, including his first 1929 Riley Brooklands bought for £30, and settled it within the historic Old Mill in Bourton‑on‑the‑Water.
The Grade II‑listed Old Mill building, originally water‑wheel, later steam and diesel powered, had ceased operations in 1949 and stood vacant until repurposed into the museum space in 1978.

Originally: created to showcase Mike Cavanagh’s personal collection of cars, motorcycles, signage, toys and motoring memorabilia, offering a nostalgic journey through 20th-century motoring culture.
Today: a multi-gallery museum spanning over 7,500 sq ft over seven showrooms, offering vintage vehicles, over 800 enamel signs, toy vehicles, caravans, and children’s TV star Brum, delivering a family-friendly educational experience rooted in history and community memory

In 1999, Cavanagh sold the museum to the Civil Service Motoring Association (CSMA), now known as Boundless, a not-for-profit leisure organisation that continues to operate and invest in the museum to this day.
Boundless led investment in repairs to the historic structure, improved visitor accessibility, and in 2005–6 added a new gallery to expand exhibits covering motoring history into the 1960s and 1970s.

Home to over 800 enamel motoring signs, many rescued from UK petrol pump forecourts and garages, forming one of the country's most extensive collections.
You’ll find Brum, the beloved TV superhero car, whose adventures begin and end at the museum—you can even have your photo taken with him or receive a Brum-themed brass rubbing souvenir.
Visitors praised the museum atmosphere:
“One of the best car museums… the signs almost everywhere… models and cycles hanging from the ceiling… information cards… had information I’d not seen…”
The museum continues to grow its collection, with Boundless expanding exhibits into the 1960s and 70s, adding a new gallery in 2005/6

For more information about the Cotswold Motoring Museum, you can visit their website here.