The Cooke Collection

[akku]

So this week I was pleased to be invited along to a tour of The Cooke Collection, a sort of "by appointment" museum type place, kind of with a vintage car restoration business which is hung off a specialist casting business. The collection is in a farm in the middle of nowhere in Leicestershire so it was a nice drive out in the evening to see it. The collection was started by the current proprietor's dad and moved to its current home in 1974. Originally it was "just" a collection of pre-war Morris Oxfords and Cowleys but has expanded to include whatever else took his fancy, which principally means prewar Rolls Royces.

First off the cars which attended as guests were parked in the farmyard.


































My Fiesta was there also, but I didn't take a photo....

First off we had a mooch round the outbuildings where cars and parts are stored.










And then on to the workshops where customer cars are being worked on

[akku]

Lots of interesting machinery and stocks of stuff













So then a walk over to the old barn where the collection lives...



















The black saloon has a documented 80,000 miles from new and is totally original and unrestored




Theres a collection of motorbikes - this 1920s Humber was found unregistered and never ridden...










More bike stuff, there was also Minis and a Fiat 500 there.








"No air bags, no seat belts, we die like real men" or some other rubbish.


Some modern stuff in the collection (we were asked to "ignore the Audi, its not supposed to be in here")

[akku]

So yet more cool veteran and vintage cars...




































Marvellous old Bentley























I was also taken by the "modern" Rolls Royce









More tools and cool stuff in storage

[akku]

Then the collection of the older Morris stuff...






















Some seriously old school stuff...














Commercial vehicles...

[akku]

Obviously there will be MGs too...




Including a recreation of the first ever MG













A bubble car and the pedal cars...






And loads of old books, magazines and motorabilia














And then a cup of tea and a biscuit and a nose round!

[minijohn]

Looks like an interesting place - I love the Titanic shaped sidecar.
Great photos too.

[rattlecan]

Great pics thanks

[qwerty]

I bet that place smelled great.


Tom

[adam73bgt]

That's a collection and a half! The veteran car with the barrel shaped engine cover is curious

[grizz]

Privileged you certainly were.

Thanks as always, for sharing.

[Seth]

That looks great. Appears to be quite a few of the 'less desirable' body styles that they've been able to preserve rather than eg another Bentley saloon being lost to a Le Mans style recreation. Slightly gauky Bugattis too - English bodywork perhaps?

[westbay]

Quite a collection there, some very interesting machines to be sure.

Thanks for sharing.

[fogey]

I could get lost in there for hours! What a super cool place

[820]

Enjoyed that, thanks

[akku]

Jun 30, 2023 8:43:57 GMT Seth said:

That looks great. Appears to be quite a few of the 'less desirable' body styles that they've been able to preserve rather than eg another Bentley saloon being lost to a Le Mans style recreation. Slightly gauky Bugattis too - English bodywork perhaps?

yeah the chap was saying how unusual it is to find a survivor Bentley with the original body.

At the Mullins they were telling me most Bugattis started out as race cars and then had coupe or touring or roadster etc bodywork done later when they were obsolete as race cars. Interesting twist