So the my second week of holidays started yesterday and gosh, it's all going far too quickly! The wife has been decorating the eldest daughter's bedroom and the kids picked Muckleburgh as their destination of choice. It's just a little over an hour away on the north Norfolk coast. I think it's the UK's biggest private collection of military artefacts, where possible kept in working order.
Brilliantly, I left the SD card at home again so had to rely on my phone. It didn't matter much though as in hindsight the kids weren't too interested and we ended up whipping around in little over an hour. I'd easily spend half a day there by myself.
The collection is varied and includes military vehicles of various varieties, guns, models and lots of local military history. The vehicle below is a Fort Amphibian Jeep from 1942. They were originally designed to get personnel from ships to shore but struggled to handle the force of waves, they were then used to cross rivers. I was surprised to see the 60BHP engine could propel it along land at 50 MPH!
This British Chieftain was HUGE! Crewed by 4 it has a combat weight of 55 tonnes! That's a lot of weight. The gun was too big for me to get in shot, these were in service from the 1960's up until the 1990s and were sold to, saw service in the Middle East (Iraq/Kuwait).
I didn't capture the information on this vehicle, but it was much smaller than the Chieftain.
These were not the vehicles to travel in for those with long legs. Actually, that seemed to be the same for jeeps and any other older military vehicle. I'm 6' 2" and doubt I could have got behind the controls of any of them. This is the cabin of a Tracked Rapier. Rapiers are actually the surface to air missiles carried and the Tracked Rapier is the mobile platform from which they can be launched. Production started in the 1970s and these were again deployed in the Gulf War. Their main function was to protect the Chieftain tanks.
Here is a 1950s Ferret Scout Car which would be crewed by two but had some space for another 6. I'm not sure I'd want to spend too much time in here.
There's a great collection at Muckleburgh and I'd recommend it should you be in the area. Take some food though! The cafe grub was jolly nice but bloomin' expensive.
