My wife declared that we needed a holiday so off we set to North Devon for a week; this was last month so the weather wasn’t brilliant but there was enough local interest historically (more later) and the beaches were spacious enough for our dog to go completely bats**t. Apart from some pretty indifferent weather – which was expected – there was a bit of a paucity of decent eateries; however, this is not a post for the North Devon tourist board but I thought I’d set the scene.
About 35 minutes from where we were staying was the Cobbaton Combat Collection, which some may have heard of. If so then ignore the next bit. Now, to explain: this is not a museum but a collection, and I must just emphasize that. There are some artefacts that are labelled and informative as one might indeed find in a museum, but overall, the equipments on display are well, sort of dumped where they are. This does not mean they are not interesting, just if you go don’t expect good lighting and pristine exhibits or display cabinets. It was certainly worth a visit and I took nearly 50 pictures, some of which are shown below:
And so to the inside:
Daimler Armoured Car
Windsor Carrier
Ford truck
C15 Armoured Ambulance
Centaur; Lanchester SMG in cabinet
T16 Carrier
Churchill Crocodile
Sexton 25Pdr SP
Horsa Glider - fuselage
Horsa - interior
T-34/85
Centurion AVRE
Ram Kangaroo - undergoing restoration
Beaverette Armoured Car
Somewhere in all this is an LRDG wagon against the tail of a Fiesler Storch (I think)
3.7" AA Gun
And lastly, a pair of Boots DMS (wrongly laced) which I thought singularly appropriate(!)
A few more items outside:
Cromwell turret
And a rather sad Comet.
This isn’t exhaustive and I haven’t shown every last exhibit; there was also a Flak 30, a Morris Gun Tractor, a 17 Pdr A/T gun, SP Bofors, White Scout Car, FV 432, T54, Scammel Tractor, and a Dingo Scout Car, let alone the small arms and other miscellaneous ephemera; however, I didn’t want to bore you too much (or to clog the system).
'Hope this is of interest to some.
