The Shuttleworth Collection is a wonderful aircraft museum in Bedfordshire, England. It's located at an aerodrome in Old Warden, just outside of Biggleswade. It's in a lovely part of the English countryside, and part of an estate encompassing a stately home (used by a college) and gardens.
The museum is home to some of the oldest working aircraft in the country, with the oldest dating back to 1898. If you go on the right day to can get to see some of them in action. I've never had the chance to visit on one of these occasions but from what I've seen from pictures it looks pretty special. It's a working airfield, so you may see a few aircraft coming or going if you're lucky.
They also have a fine collection of vehicles, including vintage buses and charabangs. Sometimes there's also opportunity to ride on the old buses, and if you like tractors, there's a collection there for you too...
It's arranged in 3-4 hangars that you can walk around, with displays and photos all around to allow you to get a feel of aviation from the very earliest days up to the 1960's.
If vintage transport is not your thing, next door is the 'Swiss Garden', a 9-acre space modelled in the 19th Century in the Swiss style, with victorian sculptures and sctructures, and even a couple of Peacocks. I don't have any pictures of the garden from this visit but I'll find some older pics for a later post maybe. Until then enjoy these memories of flying from a bygone time...
