About Us
The Cotswold Motoring Museum is owned and run by csma (Civil Service Motoring Association).
csma is a not-for-profit motoring and leisure organisation which was founded in 1923 and now has more than 380,000 members. The Museum was acquired in 1999 when the original owner retired. The Museum reflects the motoring history of the csma and caring for the Museum is something for which we are extremely proud.
Since 1999 csma have invested heavily in the Museum. Much of the initial investment has been made to repair and improve the listed buildings, raising health and safety standards, improving facilities for visitors with disabilities in accordance with the Disability Discrimination Act and providing opportunities to make the Museum commercially sustainable. Working with museum support agencies we have raised standards of visitor care and introduced policies to improve collections care, access, interpretation and education. In 2005/6 we are building a new gallery which will allow us to expand our collection to cover motoring in the 1960s and 70s.
In 2003 the Museum won the Heart of England Tourist Board's Visitor Attraction of the Year and in 2004 we won the Museums and Heritage Award for our interpretation project "Big Ideas for Small Children".
The collection neatly represents a slice of motoring history from the 20th Century. The big showstoppers are, of course, the 31 cars, the caravans, the motorcycles, the dozens of bicycles, but what will really take your breath away is the huge amount of related material. It is the showcases packed with motoring paraphernalia, the old garage equipment, the walls filled with enamel signs, the petrol pumps and globes, everything connected with motoring from branded hat pins to an AA box. Around these objects we weave stories, history, facts and feelings to create a Museum where we hope the past will inspire future generations.
