The Science Museum have submitted plans to build a new store at its Wroughton site which will be used to house the majority of the museum’ collection.
The former airfield has housed the museum’s larger objects in 10 old aircraft hangars since the 1970’s and the collection is rarely open to the public due to the lack of space and infrastructure
A spokesman for the museum, said: “The new facility will enable us to improve and speed up the process of preparing objects for loan to other organisations, or for display in new galleries and exhibitions across our family of museums.”
Matt Moore, head of site, said: “It’s fantastic to think that we are really close to transforming the site and how we manage, and access, our collection.”
It is also hoped the new store will allow the collection to be opened for public viewing on a regular basis.
The largest object currently housed at Wroughton is thought to be the Wood Press. Weighin in at a whopping 140 tonnes this piece of machinery is part of the last working printing press in Fleet Street and has been at the site since 2001.
If you would like to take a look at the full catalogue of archived items at Wroughton you can do here.
