Great West Way® Travel Magazine | Issue 02

Richard Aldhous has been a car enthusiast all his life. Now
a director of Calne’s Atwell-Wilson Motor Museum, he
started working here as a car parking attendant. “Back
then, we were three staff, now we are a grand nine,” he
says. “We will never be as big as Beaulieu or Haynes but
we don’t want to be, we are quite happy being small but
spectacular. We have everything here from the expected
to the unexpected, including all those makes you can
remember from being a kid, like the Trojan, Morris Minor,
Model T Ford, Austin 7s, gleaming Daimlers, a prototype
Mini – you name it.” Refreshingly free from the glitz and
the trailer queens, Atwell-Wilson is packed to the rafters
with a whacky collection of about 100 everyday classic cars
(some available to hire), lorries, motorcycles, mopeds and
push bikes from days gone by, set against the backdrop of
a 1930s garage. Pretty much all the vehicles are in useable
condition rather than being pampered showpieces and
poking round them is like taking a casual, rather fun stroll
through motoring history. “I feel as happy as a sandboy
living and working here in Calne,” says Richard. “There is
so much here to discover. Calne has always been a place
of discovery – first you had Priestley discovering oxygen
in Bowood, which in turn led to discovering the process of
photosynthesis. Not forgetting the good old pigs and the
Wiltshire cure, invented here by the Harris family in the
eighteenth century. When we lost the pigs, it is fair to say
that Calne had a good 15 years of depression but now we
have fallen back in love with ourselves and our community
is as strong as any. →
Richard's best thing about the Great West Way:
“I love that it focuses travellers on a route but then guides
them north and south of it too, which means they do
actually find little gems like us”.
Richard's favourite day out: “Cycling the track from
Avebury to Calne and out to Chippenham with a stop off
at The Lansdowne Arms on the way and dinner back in
Calne at the Italian restaurant (Antica Roma) that’s always
booked up”.
Pictured
top-left then
clockwise:
Richard
Aldhous,
Director
of Calne’s
Atwell-
Wilson Motor
Museum; the
museum;
The Red Lion
Avebury;
Cycling on the
Great West
Way; Calne
High Street
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