The National Motor Museum is leaving its home of more than 60 years at Beaulieu – but if you’re planning a trip to the New Forest attraction, there’s no need to panic just yet.
The National Motor Museum Trust confirmed earlier this month that it has begun searching for a “transformational” new home, with its current lease at Beaulieu in Hampshire nearing the end of its 60-year term.
Home to one of the world’s best-known collections of vehicles and motoring memorabilia, the museum sits within the wider Beaulieu attraction – a regular fixture on MCN’s list of must-visit museums you can ride to .
Alongside its cars, it houses a solid selection of bikes, and the site regularly opens its doors to motorcyclists, including the inaugural Beaulieu Bikers’ Day in July 2024, where classic machines such as a 1928 Rudge-Whitworth and Mike Hailwood’s 1961 Isle of Man TT-winning Honda RC162 were fired up in the grounds.
The Trust says the move is the next stage in a long-term plan to secure the museum’s future, engage new generations of enthusiasts and preserve its collection. It also wants to expand its learning and community work, including a vision for a training centre offering heritage engineering apprenticeships.
Over the past two years, the Trust and the Montagu family looked at redeveloping the museum at Beaulieu through major donor investment but concluded that its ambitions are better served by a move elsewhere.
Robert MacGregor, Chair of the Board of Trustees of the National Motor Museum Trust, said: ‘We are sad that the National Motor Museum will be leaving Beaulieu but are at the same time very excited about this once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform the Museum for the future.
“A new home can refresh our whole approach, enable us to make the collection more accessible, expand our educational and community impact, and ensure Britain’s motoring story remains relevant.”
Crucially, Beaulieu itself isn’t losing its motor museum. In its own statement, the attraction confirmed it intends to keep running a motor museum, as it has for more than 70 years.
A significant number of the vehicles on display are either on loan from or owned by the Montagu family and will stay at Beaulieu. The day-to-day visitor experience won’t change, and the events calendar is unaffected – including the International Autojumble in September.
There’s also no immediate rush: the Trust’s lease still has around four years left to run, so the move won’t happen overnight. Visitors will see no change for the foreseeable future.
The museum’s roots at the site date back to 1952, when Edward, Lord Montagu, first opened Palace House to visitors and displayed five veteran cars in the entrance hall as a tribute to his father, motoring pioneer John Scott Montagu. That display grew into the Montagu Motor Museum and later the National Motor Museum.
Lord Montagu of Beaulieu said: “My father’s underlying ambition was to record and celebrate the story of motoring for the benefit of the nation.
“He founded the National Motor Museum Trust to do that, but its collections and activities have expanded beyond what anyone at the time envisaged. The charity’s long-term aims will now stand the best chance of being achieved if it can be based in a new home.
“Wherever the National Motor Museum and its collections may be located in the future, Beaulieu will continue to develop as a leading south coast attraction, offering a comparable range of experiences to what people enjoy t…