Bubblecar Museum gets ready to reopen next month in Langrick, near Boston

More than 50 bubblecars, scooters and motorbikes will be back on display when the country’s only museum dedicated to these small but mighty machines reopens next month (March 8).

The Bubblecar Museum, in Langrick, near Boston, is gearing up for its 2024 season and can’t wait to welcome visitors back with new displays featuring classic 1950s and 60s motors including Isetta, Meschermsitt, Bond and Vespa.

As well as viewing the vehicles, and other items from the era set out in shopfronts and household displays, visitors can also pay to take a 15-minute ride in one of the cars.

Owner Paula Ashleigh-Morris said there will be lots of new and exciting displays for visitors of all ages to enjoy, including a set of 1950s girls’ dresses, which been recently donated.

“Bubblecars were first produced in the 1950s and 1960s and to see them around then wasn’t that uncommon – they were just someone’s old car!” said Paula. “It was a really nice, safe era for driving. These are amazing machines, but simple and straightforward. You can repair them, make bits for them and there’s no problem getting spares.

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“Driving lessons back then were quite expensive, but a lot of these vehicles were three-wheelers – if you had a motorbike licence, you could drive a three-wheeled car, it was considered the same as driving a trike.

“Many people started off with a moped or scooter, got a girlfriend so invested in a sidecar and when the family came along, they started driving a bubblecar. They were a great first car.”

Microcar refers to a vehicle with an engine capacity of less than 700cc – although most are much smaller – and they are a significant part of British motoring history.

These iconic bubblecars first appeared following the Second World War. Smaller, cheaper vehicles had always been in demand, but these small vehicles were a radical departure from previous models with their new technologies and futuristic design. Spurred on by uncertainties over Middle East oil supplies, lots of manufacturers were soon busy making these small economic vehicles.

English makes included Bond, Frisky, Coronet, Reliant, Berkley, Noble and Scootacar while continental brands produced in Italy, Spain and Germany included Vespa, Isetta, Messerschmitts.

Paula’s interest in microcars was sparked by her ex-husband who ran a 2CV restoration business and also raced the small vehicles. The couple moved to Lincolnshire from Somerset, after selling the business and planned to keep racing, but do little else.

“A few people in the microcar movement said there really ought to be a museum dedicated to them, as there wasn’t really anything else like that,” recalls Paula, “so that’s what we did. The place we had moved to near Sleaford had three acres of land and a large workshop.

“We already had a few cars in our collection; the main ones everyone’s heard of such as Bond, Isetta and Messerschmitts. We’d been restoring, buying and selling them but just started adding to them with some of the more unusual makes that perhaps people wouldn’t expect to see. And then friends would look out for them too. There are still good barn finds to be made today.”

The museum first opened its doors in 2005 and relocated to bigger premises at its current site near Boston, in 2012.

Other facilities include a souvenir shop and tearoom serving cakes, ploughman’s’ lunches, teas and coffees. The site also has campsite which hosts several rallies each year.

Paula added that the Bubblecar Museum is also seeking more volunteers to help out over the forthcoming season with cleaning the cars in its collection and serving in the tearoom.

Hours can be flexible and anyone interested in helping out should contact the museum.

The Bubblecar Museum reopens to the public on Saturday, March 8 until November. It is open Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 4pm. Admission is £5 for adults, £2 for under 14s and £1 for smaller children.

For more information visit bubblecarmuseum.co.uk