The Army

The Army collection starts from its earliest beginnings in the civil war to todays high tech modern army and includes an impressive array of original uniforms and equipment which chart the history of the army.

The soldiers are shown in full combat gear from Victorian times through to the Gulf War which is rarely seen in any other museum.

Royal Air Force

The RAF collection starts from its earliest beginnings in the First World War, when it was originally known as the RFC (Royal Flying Corps) up to the Gulf War.The uniform displays show pilots in full flight gear from The First and Second World Wars and from The Falklands and Gulf War.

The centerpiece of the collection is one of the few surviving TSR2 engines.

The Navy

The Royal Navy collection ranges from early shipwreck artefacts including a 15th century cannon, to uniforms and equipment used in the First Gulf War. The collection includes an impressive array of munitions from cannon balls to 15" battleship shells.

Rare Second World War Royal Marines combat kit can be viewed, as well as the famous 'Cockleshell Heroes' canoe, and original equipment from Operation Frankton.

You can see submariners' uniforms from the First and Second World Wars including submarine escape suits.

Special Forces

An extensive range of Special Forces weapons and equipment is held at the museum including silenced submachine guns, knives and SOE (Special Operations Executive) booby traps and explosive devices.

The collection also incudes rare equipment and uniforms, survival equipment, escape and evasion equipment and the original MI9 paperwork.

Secret Service

Amoungst other special operations and spy equipment, the museum holds the Peter and Pru Mason collection which is one of the worlds foremost collections of covert operation clothing, weapons and equipment that can be publicly viewed.

Many of the items in the collection are the only examples on dislpay worldwide, and all are real pieces of espionage equipment which were used operationally by Peter and Prue Mason.

Discover their amazing story and the connection to the Ian Flemming character, James Bond. Captain Peter Mason was an agent with a 'licence to kill', and knew Ian Flemming the writer of the James Bond novels.

Weapons

The museum proudly houses an extensive firearm collection that ranges from the earliest 15th Century hand cannons, to the current service weapons.

The collection contains many weapons with interesting stories behind them, including the Peter and Prue Mason 'spy weapons'

Ancient

The museums English Civil War collection is one of the finest in the country, with armour, swords polearms and clothing from the period on display.

In the main entrance is our 'Wall of Steel' - Oak Panelled walls, covered with weapons from Medeival times to the Napoleonic War.

Home Front

The home front collection focuses on the period from the Second World War through to the 1950's Cold War era. All types of gas masks are shown, in addition to the ration and identity cards, air raid sirens and bombs and shrapnel that would have fallen from the skies.

Nuclear warfare provisions and bunker uniforms from the 1950's demonstrate the growing fears within society, which resulted from the implications of nuclear war.