00:00You may not be aware, but the Black Country has a great heritage regarding transport.
00:06I'm here at the Technol Transport Heritage Centre with Peter Stant, the curator,
00:13who's going to tell me about this magnificent site, a transport heritage centre with aeroplanes in Technol.
00:19How did that come about?
00:21Well, we started off as part of the Bolton Pool Association.
00:27When the building closed, we looked for a different building, found this lovely place here,
00:33brought some of the stuff here and then expanded on that.
00:36So we now basically cater for all wheeled and winged vehicles made in Wolverhampton.
00:42Yeah, I mean, just an amazing thing is you've got some incredible examples here, pieces of Canberra aircraft, of course.
00:48Where do you get all this material from? There's so much of it.
00:51Well, they started off mainly as part of private collections that we've sort of brought together.
00:58But the lovely thing is now that we're starting to get known, people come in all the time.
01:03They come in every weekend with a something and they'll say,
01:07we're clearing out my grandfather's house and we found this.
01:11And it says Made in Wolverhampton on it. Do you want it?
01:13And of course, we always do because it's always something fantastic.
01:15Yeah, you've actually got something which came from the movie, Those Magnificent Men and the Flying Machines.
01:21How did you end up with that?
01:23Well, that's right. We have a, it's a Santos Dumont Demoiselle replica that was used in the film by the
01:31French pilot.
01:33That was actually given to us by the RAF.
01:35Oh, what a wonderful thing to have there.
01:37I mean, the museum covers, you know, everything from the Second World War, all the details there, early aviation,
01:43things that were manufactured in a black country.
01:46Oh, yes, that's right.
01:47I mean, we're looking at 100 plus bicycle manufacturers,
01:52at least 16 car and motorcycle manufacturers, three aeroplane manufacturers,
01:57three land speed record cars came from Wolverhampton and numerous other things.
02:05But my favourite, my personal favourite, of course, you've got pieces of a Canberra.
02:10How did you get bits of a Canberra?
02:12Well, the Canberra belonged to one of the gentlemen that actually started the Heritage Centre,
02:22who sadly passed away.
02:23He actually just found it available for sale, bought it and then donated it to the centre.
02:30Where are you and what's your opening times?
02:32OK, well, we're in Tetonhall.
02:34We are just off Tetonhall Road by Tetonhall Rock.
02:38We're in a place called Meadow View and this is the old Tetonhall railway station.
02:44We're open every weekend, 10 until 3, and we're also open on Thursday mornings.
02:50So, absolutely fantastic.
02:51So, please come and take a visit here.
02:54It'll just prove to you that Wolverhampton, the sky is no longer the limit.
Comments