Museums of the United Kingdom
UK Museums: Barrow in Furness * Bedford * Caernarfon * Diss * East Fortune, Scotland * Wisbech * East Warden * London * Hendon * Pembroke * South Kensington * Yeovilton * Farnborough * Little Wigborough * Mersea Island Museum
I have located a number of museums in the United Kingdom with airship exhibits (or reported to have airship exhibits). If I encounter other museums in the UK which are verified to have an airship exhibit they will be included here.
Barrow in Furness: The Dock Museum
This museum is very near the port and hangar location of the Mayfly! Given the rich airship history of this area, this museum is assumed to have airship exhibits!
Photo credit: Undetermined
Website: The Dock Museum, www.dockmuseum.org.uk (website is not secure.)
The museum is located at (Lat Lon) 54.111927 -003.239736, Barrow in Furness, UK.
The location of the location of the museum in Google Maps:
Bedford: The Higgins, Bedford
I hesitated listing this entry here as this is not a typical museum. It's more of an art gallery which also contains the Bedford Museum which has been known to put on exhibitions of airships. In Sep, 2017, the Higgins had an exhibit of the "Shorts Brothers" who built the great airships at the famous Cardington Hangars. Previously, from October to December, 2010, they held an exhibition on the R-100 and R-101. Displays change all the time, so it is unknown if any airship exhibits are ongoing.
Photo credit: Google Maps
Website: The Higgins
The museum is located at (Lat Lon) 52.135931 -000.464079, in Bedford, UK.
The location of the location of the museum in Google Maps:
Caernarfon: Airworld Aviation Museum
This museum is said to have one or more exhibits on airships though I have not been able to independently confirm it.
Photo credit: Google Earth
Website: Airworld Aviation Museum
The museum is located at (Lat Lon) 53.100245 -004.337858, in Caernarfon, UK.
The location of the location of the museum in Google Maps:
Diss: Diss Museum
Very nice display and large model of the R-34. You can't beat a "free" admission museum with an airship display!
Photo credit: Undetermined
Website: Diss Museum
The museum is located at (Lat Lon) 52.376939 001.108932, in Diss, UK.
The location of the location of the museum in Google Maps:
East Fortune, Scotland: National Museum of Flight
This airfield is the site of the origination of the first ever Atlantic crossing by an aircraft, the airship R-34. The museum here is said to have one or more exhibits about airships.
Photo credit: Undetermined
This museum is reported to have a display of an unexploded bomb dropped from a Zeppelin on the night of April 2nd, 1916.
Website: National Museum of Flight
The museum is located at (Lat Lon) 55.995231 -002.722991, in East Fortune, Scotland.
The location of the location of the museum in Google Maps:
Wisbech, UK: Fenland and West Norfolk Aviation Museum
This museum appears to have a small permanent display about airships with couple of nice models of the German L-4 and the British R-101 and a piece of the structural framework of a Zeppelin.
Photo credit: John Felding, Twitter
Photo credit: Adam Greenwold
Website: Fenland and West Norfolk Aviation Museum
The museum is located at (Lat Lon) 52.685808 000.197407, near Wisbech, Old Lynn Road, West Walton, Wisbech PE14 7DA England.
The location of the location of the museum in Google Maps:
East Warden: Shuttleworth Airfield and Museum
This airfield is also a museum reported to have one or more exhibits about airships. The Shutteworth according to the Mckinty book about Earnest Willows, "The Father of British Airships", may be in possession of the engine from the Willows airship "City of Cardiff" but it is unknown if the engine remains on display.
Photo credit: Google StreetView
Website: Shuttleworth.org
The Willows airship engine as it was displayed in 2012:
Photo credit: Nimbus 227, unedited.
Creative Commons license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode
The museum is located at (Lat Lon) 52.089071 -000.321842, in East Warden, UK.
The location of the location of the museum in Google Maps:
London: Imperial War Museum
The Imperial War Museum really doesn't focus on Lighter than air, but does have a few interesting military displays of zeppelins, mostly about WWI raids and their effect on London.
Photo credit: Undetermined
Website: Imperial War Museum
The museum is located at (Lat Lon) 51.496385 -000.108618, in London, UK.
The location of the location of the museum in Google Maps:
Hendon: RAF Museum
The RAF Museum at Hendon is said to have on display a couple of airship control cars, including a mock-up of the control car of the Nuli-Secundis.
Photo credit: https://www.targeta.co.uk/hendon_museum.htm
Website: RAF Museum
The museum is located at (Lat Lon) 51.598444 -000.239378, in Hendon, UK.
The location of the location of the museum in Google Maps:
Pembroke: Carew Cheriton Airfield, former Royal Navy Airship Station
Carew Cheriton Airfield is the First World War Royal Navy Airship Station "Milton". It was formed in February 1916 with the building of two 120ft x 318ft hangars of corrugated iron with large windshields. Two hydrogen storage facilities, wooden huts and canvas workshops and an area of tented accommodation for personnel were also constructed. To accommodate the new fixed winged aircraft deployed from 1917, a Bessonau hangar was built along with several additional wooden buildings. The corrugated iron hangars were dismantled in the late 1920s when the base was re-developed to form RAF Carew Cheriton.
As an airship field in WWI, operations included SS-class (Submarine Scout or Sea Scout), SSZ-class (Sea Scout Zero) and C-class (Coastal-class or 'Coastals') non-rigid airships. The mission was to surveil the Irish Sea, Bristol Channel and Western Approaches on anti-submarine patrols. Displayed are a growing collection of artifacts, a fully kitted out reconstructed WW2 control tower.
There is a monument out front is dedicated to those who worked at the airfield from 1915-1918 and 1939-1945. Surrounding the monument are cement blocks which were airship mooring weights.
Photo credit: Panoramio by Will Wonder
Website: Carew Cheriton Control Tower
The museum is located at (Lat Lon) 51.692018 -004.818416, Carew Cheriton, near Pembroke, UK. The museum is operated during limited hours. Any visit should be verified by checking with the website.
The location of the location of the museum in Google Maps:
London: Science Museum South Kensington
Said to have one showcase dedicated to early French non-rigid airships, one with models of British rigid airships and a model of a Thunder & Colt hot air airship and a last showcase with several models of the Airship Industries (now Airship Technologies Inc.) Skyships.
Photo credit: Google Street View
Website: Science Museum South Kensington
The museum is located at (Lat Lon) 51.497993 -000.174152, in South Kensington, London, UK.
The location of the location of the museum in Google Maps:
Yeovilton: Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm Museum (FAAM)
This museum of the Royal Navy is said to have exhibits about airships however, displays are often changed. The FAAM is in possession of the airship artifact holdings of the Airship Heritage Trust, an organization that since 1985 has been preserving British airship history, and has been trying, for decades, to establish a national British airship museum.
Photo credit: Undetermined
Website: Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm Museum
The museum is located at (Lat Lon) 51.015560 -002.636050, in Yeovilton, UK.
The location of the location of the museum in Google Maps:
Farnborough: Farnborough Air Sciences Trust (FAST)
FAST was founded in 1993 to safeguard Farnborough's rich aeronautical heritage and work to preserve and promote Farnborough's history of aviation science. Given Farnborough's rich aviation history, one might expect an exhibit or two on airships. But as with all museums, exhibition space is limited and displays are changed all the time so it is rare for an aviation museum to highlight airships.
Photo credit: https://www.visit-hampshire.co.uk/things-to-do/farnborough-air-sciences-museum-p285501
Website: Farnborough Air Sciences Trust (FAST)
The museum is located at (Lat Lon) 51.282606 -000.753646, in Farnborough, UK. The address is: 85 Farnborough Road, Farnborough, Hampshire, UK
The location of the location of the museum in Google Maps:
Little Wigborough: St. Nicholas Church
You might notice that this is NOT a museum! But St. Nicholas Church in Little Wigborough has a unique position amongst the museums a position that the museums don't have! Museums don't have their own history with airships. This church does. The St. Nicholas Church has a unique history with the 1916 crash landing of the L-33 Zeppelin and today has a couple of fine artifacts from the airship, as well is where the grave is located of the only British fatality associated with the L-33 incident.
Photo credit: Copyright IoE Mr Wilfred N. Winder. Source Historic England Archive.
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1223007
Website: (None)
The Church is located at (Lat Lon) 51.794462 000.871105, on Copt Hall Lane in Little Wigborough, Essex, UK. (Click either link to jump to the location in Google Maps.) The Church is not far from the scene of the L-33 crash, just a third of a mile (2/3 of a kilometer) away.
Inside the Church are three interesting artifacts. Hanging above a doorway is a piece of an aluminum girder from the L-33; a plaque, framed by other aluminum girder parts from the L-33 and describing the incident in September, 1916; and a commemorative plaque to Mrs. Zeppelina Williams, a woman who was born in Little Wigborough the night the Zeppelin came down. As far as it is known, Zeppelina is the only person named after the wartime event in Little Wigborough.
These items make this small Church one of the most unique "museums" in the world. (At the time of this writing, the Church may be closed due to cracks discovered, and possible subsidence under the floor. The Church may be undergoing repairs. I, for one, do hope it is repaired and reopened.)
An L-33 girder hanging above a doorway in the St. Nicholas Church, Little Wigborough
Photo credit: david.robarts
https://www.flickr.com/photos/16162181@N05/8740207399/
A record of the L-33 incident on a wall in the St. Nicholas Church, Little Wigborough
Photo credit: Richard Crockett
https://www.flickr.com/photos/richard64pics/21210352713/in/photostream/
Unfortunately, I have not been able to discover what the plaque reads. Maybe someone will contact me to let me know so I can include it here.
A memorial plaque to Zeppelina Williams
Photo credit: undetermined.
And finally, outside, in the church graveyard is the burial place and headstone of Alfred John Wright. He is the only known casualty of the fateful night when the L-33 Zeppelin came down in Little Wigborough. Alfred Wright was dispatched by motorcycle to summon the help of the nearest military guard. On the road that night, in the dark, he collided with a car and died some 7 weeks later from his injuries.
Grave stone of Alfred Wright, the only casualty in the L-33 crach, 24 Sep, 1916.
Photo credit: https://terraincerta.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/st-nicholas-lw-2.jpg.
As near as I can tell, the gravestone is at (Lat Lon) 51.794304 000.871159. Click here to jump directly tho the headstone in Google Maps.
The headstone reads:
In loving memory
of
Alfred John
son of John and Emma Wright,
who died Nov 13th, 1916,
aged 45 years,
from injuries received whilst on his
way to inform military guard of the
fall of Zeppelin L33, in this parish
Sept. 24th, 1916
Of all the museums I have attempted to find that MAY have airship exhibits, this Church is one of the few I would truly love to visit. For here is true history, in the place where it happened.
Mersea Island Museum, Essex, UK
Photo credit: Google Maps
The Mersea Island Museum is located not far from airship history. The museum is just 5 miles (8 km) from Little Wigborough where the Zeppelin L-33 was brought down and crash landed in September, 1916.
The Mersea Island Museum is known to have had airship exhibits in the past. They offered an L-33 Zeppelin exhibit in 2009 and in 2016, (the 100th anniversary of the Zeppelin crash), but it is not at all clear that any permanent exhibit about the L-33 remains at the museum. (This is typical for a museum. They change exhibits all the time to draw visitors, unfortunately, airship history is very often neglected due to lack of space and lack of knowledge and interest in airships. Consequently, there is no guarantee this museum will have any airship exhibits at any time.)
Website: Mersea Island Museum
Here is a photo from the 2009 exhibition about the L-33:
Photo credit: Mersea Island Museum
And this image is from the 2016 exhibition:
Photo credit: Mersea Island Museum
The museum is located at (Lat Lon) 51.775073 000.911866, at 12 High Street, West Mersea, Mersea Island, Essex, UK. Click the link LAT-LON link here to jump directly there in Google Maps.