Milestones Living History Museum

Milestones Museum at night
Location within Hampshire
Established	1 December 2000
Location	Basingstoke, Hampshire, England
Coordinates	51°15′59″N 1°06′41″W / 51.2665°N 1.1115°W / 51.2665; -1.1115
Type	Heritage centre
Public transit access	Route 8 bus
Website	Milestones

Milestones Museum of Living History is a museum located on the Leisure Park in Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK. Milestones is made up of a network of streets that have been recreated according to those found in Victorian and 1930s Hampshire.

It was opened on 1 December 2000 by Duke of Edinburgh^[1][2] as a joint project between Hampshire County Council and Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

In the year running 2007/8 the museum received 88,338 visitors.^[3]

In 2014, ownership of the Milestones Museum was transferred to the Hampshire Cultural Trust as part of a larger transfer of museums from Hampshire County Council and Winchester City Council.^[4]

Features include recreations of:^[5][6]

• a Victorian public house, the Baverstock Arms, named for a 19th-century Alton brewer. Serves alcoholic refreshments at lunchtime.
• a Victorian railway station based on the GWR station at Winchester (Chesil). Features a 4mm scale model of the station with operating trains.
• a Victorian Ironmonger
• a Victorian watchmaker and jeweller
• a Victorian terraced house
• a Victorian milliners
• a Victorian light engineering shop
• a Victorian paintworks, powered by a Tasker stationary steam engine
• a Victorian pier amusement arcade
• a sawmill
• a saddlery
• a 1930s town with shops
  • Cooperative Society shop
  • sweet shop
  • toy shop (with original toys)
  • record and television shop (including original equipment)
  • Car showroom
• 1940s period home interiors, kitchen and living room.

A new addition for 2021 is Mr Simpson's Teddy Bear museum, featuring more than 260 examples dating from 1905 onwards.^[7]

Many of the shops and workshops feature sound tracks of appropriate conversations and sound effects.

There is a large collection of road vehicles, notably by local manufacturers, Thornycroft of Basingstoke and Taskers of Andover. These cover examples of human powered, horse drawn, steam and motor driven vehicles.

• Hand cart
• Hand propelled bakers cart.^[8]
• Grocer's delivery bicycle
• 2 tradesmens' tricycles
• Various bicycles, including penny-farthings

• Pantechnicon^[9]
• Governess cart
• Brewers dray
• Coalman's cart
• Milk float
• Farm wagon
• Stickback undercut gig
• Hutchings caravan
• Reading type Romany caravan or vardo^[10]
• Portable steam engine

Include two road rollers by Taskers and two by Wallis & Steevens. There are also two Taskers Little Giant traction engines, one displayed with a log trailer.

• EL 3908 Thornycroft Steam Wagon, works number 115, built in 1902.^[11]
• AA 5296 Taskers Little Giant, works number 1599, built in 1914.^[12][13]
• SR 1294 Taskers Little Giant, works number 1726, built in 1917.^[14][15]
• BD 7994 Taskers road roller, works number 1906, built in 1923.^[16]
• YB 183 Taskers Little Giant steam lorry, works number 1915, built in 1924.^[17] The only surviving Taskers steam lorry.^[18]
• OT 8201 Taskers road roller, works number 1933, built in 1928.^[19][20]
• AA 2470 Wallis & Steevens steam wagon, works number 7279.^[21]
• OT 3078 Wallis & Steevens Advance road roller, works number 7867 built in 1926.^[22]
• OT 8512 Wallis & Steevens Simplicity road roller, works number 7940, built in 1928.^[23]

There are some 25 commercial vehicles along with private cars, two generations of motor buses and a coach.

• Cars
  • BS 8239 Thornycroft 4 seater, built in 1903.
  • H 2499 Thornycroft 14HP open tourer, built in 1905.
  • DS 6683 Thornycroft open tourer, built in 1907.^[24]
  • DS 6684 Thornycroft 30HP open tourer, built in 1907.
  • AMO 903 Morris convertible, built in 1937.^[25]
  • FVM 288 OEC motorbike and sidecar, built in 1939.
  • K 3 Keeble K3 concept car, built in 2003.^[26]
• Buses
  • BK 2986 Thornycroft J Portsmouth Corporation No. 10, built 1919.^[27]
  • RV 6368 Leyland Titan TD4, Portsmouth Corporation No. 8, built 1934.^[28]
  • EY 5218 Thornycroft Lightning coach. Built in 1935 and displayed in half-built condition.

• Commercial vehicles include:
  • NB 6684 Thornycroft J army lorry, WD livery, built in 1916.^[29]
  • SV 6068 Thornycroft J lorry, SCATS livery, built in 1917.^[30]
  • CJ 3008 Thornycroft X type lorry, D.C. Bowkley livery, built in 1918.^[14]
  • CE 6065 Leyland military subsidy lorry, Chivers & Sons livery, built in 1919
  • BS 9028 Thornycroft A1 lorry, Shell livery, built in 1925.^[28]
  • YN 402 Austin pick-up, Gales Brewery livery, built in 1926.
  • OU 6028 Thornycroft A2/FB4 horsebox, built in 1930
  • TV 5530 Thornycroft Bulldog flatbed lorry, Boots livery, built in 1931.
  • AAA 469 Thornycroft Handy dropside lorry, Corrals livery, built in 1934.^[31]
  • AUO 601 Morris van, Beavis and Co livery, built in 1935.^[25]
  • BWD 461 Thornycroft Sturdy milk lorry, PIMCO livery, built in 1937.^[28]
  • VYJ 521 Thornycroft Amazon Coles RAF recovery crane, built in 1942
  • DFK 98 Thornycroft Nippy flatbed lorry, Thornycroft livery, built in 1949.
  • MKX 788 Thornycroft Sturdy road sweeper, built in 1949.
  • POR 602 Wallis & Steevens Advance diesel road roller
  • YMY 432H Thornycroft Nubian airport crash tender, MOD, built in 1971.^[32]

The Museum fire station has a selection of hand-propelled, horse-drawn and motorised fire engines.

• Hand operated and propelled pump.
• Hand propelled Pyrene fire extinguisher.
• Shand Mason horse-drawn fire engine.
• Shand Mason horse-drawn steam pump^[33]
• BOR 316 Dennis Light 6 fire engine, Hampshire Fire Service, built in 1936.
• HJP 382 Dennis Big 4 fire engine, Hampshire Fire Brigade, built in 1938^[33]

• Longmoor Military Railway 0-6-0ST No. 1572 "Woolmer" built by the Avonside Engine Company in 1910. On loan from the National Collection.^[34]
• Great Northern Railway 7-plank open wagon No. 7329
• Portsmouth electric tramcar No. 84^[35]

Between February and April 2014 the museum hosted an exhibition of Lego models of extinct animals, constructed by Bright Bricks.^[36] In 2018, the exhibition returned, focusing on mythical creatures.^[37]

A Victorian themed Christmas Market is held in early December.^[38]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Milestones Museum, Basingstoke.

• Milestones website
• Hampshire Cultural Trust website