Today I decided I would use my day off for a bit of a road trip to a museum that I have been wanting to visit but hadn't found time to until now. The Norfolk Tank Museum is a little outside the range of a normal family expedition but as I had the day to myself I decided it was worth the 5 hour round trip! This is a fairly small museum but with some big exhibits and very helpful staff and volunteers. They were only too happy to talk about the collection and this is very much a 'hands on' experience. I even got to climb on and sit inside the turret of a Chieftain Mk 2/3 Main Battle Tank (and yes, I did fit through the hatch!).
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| The Norfolk Tank Museum |
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| An excellent way to spend my day off! |
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| Centurion Armoured Recovery Vehicle (ARV) Mk 2 |
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| Chieftain Main Battle Tank |
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| Inside the turret of the Chieftain |
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| The Turret is packed full of electronics...and a huge gun breach of course! |
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| Oustide is an Anderson Shelter |
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| Russian SA-13 Gopher |
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| Russian SA-9 Gaskin (BDRM Amphibious Chassis) |
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| British FV432 Mk 1 |
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| British FV603 Saracen APC |
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| British FV620 Amphibious Truck |
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| A German 15cm schwere Feldhaubitze 18 or sFH 18 Howitzer |
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| British F434 Armoured Recovery Vehicle |
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| American M41 Walker Bulldog Light Tank |
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| British Ferret Armoured Car |
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| British Saladin Armoured Car |
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| British Centurion AVRE |
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| British Sabre CVRT |
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| The museum workshop |
There are lots of other smaller exhibits including an impressive small arms collection. The museum also does restorations and there were several vehicles in various stages of repair to be seen.
There was also a particular 'top secret' project under a huge tarpaulin. It was obvious from the shape what it was but I won't reveal it here because they were trying to keep it literally and figuratively under wraps until its completion by November this year. Its an exciting project and I can't wait to see how it turns out...but that's my last word on the subject!
I would heartily recommend this little museum to anyone interested in armour, but particularly post war/cold war era vehicles. They have a Military Vehicle weekend in August where some of their tanks and guest vehicles will running around the display track, so if your in Norfolk on the weekend of 12/13th August get yourself over to see this excellent collection.
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