Lakeland Motor Museum visit at Lake Windermere in the Lake District

We did this on the last day of our visit as it was only a 20 minute drive from the place we were staying and it was an excuse to get our son out and tire him out a bit- hopefully see if he liked anything in particular there!

Fortunately that last day was a Sunday so it was nice and quiet which gave me a good chance to take my time and soak in the ambience of the place and everything Lakeland Motor Museum had to offer.

The entrance to the place is the gift shop and the exhibit entrance is right there as well, so its hard not to get distracted by whats on offer while paying the entrance fee!

As you walk in it opens up immediately and there is vintage cars right at the front as well as aircraft and signs hanging from the ceiling- I found myself saying "wow!" a lot and not quite taking in everything that was there at first glance as I was unsure where to look in the first place!

The cars are gleaming and the lighting is a perfect combination of natural and exhibit focused lighting which creates a great sense of space and mood as well as a calming vibe to the place.

Every car presented has a brief summary of what it is and its background, and maybe a snippet about the life that exact car had before it made its way to the museum floor. This really adds some personality to exhibits and sense of wonder and curiosity about the previous owners and the life the car had with them- if cars can talk, I bet there would be so many stories to tell!

While I am not too familiar with pre and post war cars, the presence, charm and attention to little details they have are definitely hard to ignore- particularly as they came from a time when they were mostly assembled by hand at the factories. This would of been a time as well where parts and materials were hand made and crafted on site and a large portion of the car was made in house compared to our modern day manufacturing processes. This quirk of the manufacturing process back then will have most definitely made sure no 2 cars were the same- even if it was the same model.

This automotive era of cars seems to carry more bespoke and interesting details on the interior and exterior of them too. Its nice to see manufacturer emblems beautifully engraved and proudly displayed on the front of the bonnet with a sense of pride, and the sculpted and shapely wheel arches and body lines definitely taking inspiration from that era of aviation, while carrying elements of the horse and carriage still from the past.

The optimism and excitement for the automotive future can definitely be felt around these cars.

In between these exhibits were glass cabinets full of automotive memorabilia and little scale models of the cars and toy cars. These were a feast on the eyeballs and kept capturing my attention.

They would bring me right back to my childhood when I would be playing with things like micromachines and matchbox cars, running them over every surface possible- imagining the joy of driving them one day.

The areas between exhibits were designed very well. They would tend to be through a shop front of sorts or maybe what appears to be an old garage entrance or workshop siding. This really added to the immersion and helped keep the place fresh and engaging as you would walk through a new place to the next part of the museum- parts of the place felt like a miniaturised high street or old fashioned parts store.

The shop parts would usually contain sounds in the background and of course voices of people working there - details like these are what really add to the atmosphere and feeling a place could give you. There would also be stories and writeups similar to the cars to give you a bit of perspective on what shopping for car parts was once like and the types of people that maybe worked in these places and who would visit them.

On the Next part, I'll go into the Isle of Man TT exhibit and some of the more modern exhibitions a bit further :) Be sure to check out my previous Part here: Road Tripping My 1.5JZ Toyota Soarer to the Lake District