In brief…
- Admission price: £5 (per person)
- Opening hours: 10am till 4.30pm
- Address: Norwich Road, North Walsham, Norfolk. NR28 0DS
- Website: Norfolkmotorcyclemuseum.co.uk
- Parking: A few car parking spaces, loads of motorbike spaces
After a bike buying trip to North Norfolk, we stopped at the Norfolk Motorcycle Museum in North Walsham to have a look.
The Museum is hidden down a small track just before/after a railway crossing (depending which way your coming), when you turn in take the track with all the wood stacked outside (RS Timber) and the museum is behind the timber place. There is a small sign on a post showing you which way to go.
Note about parking – There’s not alot of parking space and it’s quite narrow if your in a large vehicle (or can’t drive).
When we went it wasn’t busy so we had no trouble parking, but I would imagine the parking would get full fairly quickly in busier times?
However, there’s not many parking restrictions so finding somewhere to park with a few mins walk should be easy.
If your coming on a motorcycle, there’s loads of space to park at the top right outside the entrance.
While it is a museum, there are people working!
OK, so the 1st thing I’d point out to any potential visitors is this ISN’T A MUSEUM LIKE THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM. As the owners explained to us it’s a WORKING MUSEUM, so space is tight. Think of it more like a large workshop with loads of bikes in it.
There’s enough room to move about in the aisles and no museum attendants breathing down your neck, which is good. But there are benches with ‘ongoing projects’ on, oil, nut’s, bolts, edges etc to be mindful of.
Also, as you could imagine, the owners don’t spend hours every day cleaning and labelling the bikes, so some will be dusty and most don’t have any info labels on them.
Wheelchair access – You possibly could get a small, narrow wheelchair up to the entrance and down the aisles but it would be tight with several choke points (it’s a working museum so things are being moved about). I would recommend calling the museum the day before to check. Mobility scooters will struggle.
Just a few of the over 100 motorbikes they have
Someone met us as we came in and said we were fine to look around and take videos and pics. The cost to get in was £5 per person (we paid cash so not sure if they take card payments?).
We didn’t ask so don’t know if theres any discounts for kids/oaps/clubs etc.
Some of the bikes on show, including a factory twin engined BSA 4, 1942 Harley Davidson, Volkswagen motorbike, Yamaha YB100 and others
There are LOADS of different types of bikes on display with some from the early 1900’s up to the early 2000’s so anyone interested in motorcycles should be able to find something of interest.
None of the bikes look like they are unused (showroom/collector type bikes) and nearly all have wear and tear, which personally is good to see as it means the bikes have been ridden and have a history.
There are some interesting bikes that stood out for us, the twin engined BSA 4 was a beast and actually made in the BSA factory! There’s also a 1942 Harley Davidson, a custom bike that looks like it was originally a Honda CX500 (not sure if this was a personal bike though), a bike by Volkswagen, an Enfield motorcycle with a Charnwood Hatz diesel engine and a 1998 Honda Fireblade to list just a few.
Custom motorbike that looks like it was originally a Honda CX500?
Majority of the bikes look in rideable condition and the 1 of the people we spoke to said most of the bikes could be got running with a few hours work.
The 2 people we spoke to there were both friendly and knowledgeable and enjoyed talking about the bikes and biking in general.
Several more bikes on display from Kawasaki, Jawa and Henderson and a 4 wheeled vehicle of some sort
There is also some truly odd stuff there, a Penny Farthing bicycle, Sinclair C1 and a 4 wheeled vehicle (got no idea what it was!)
Was it worth visiting? If your interested in motorcycles of all types and ages, yes, defiantly. You just need to go with an open mind as the layout isn’t like the NEC motorcycle show!
For the price you can easily kill a few hours there and would probably be interesting for non motorcyclists as well. It’s not a ‘day out’ kind of place (so you wouldn’t plan to spend the whole day there), but would be especially good as a destination for a bike ride.
As said above, disabled access may be possible but you would need to call ahead to ask. We didn’t ask if kids are allowed, but bare in mind it is a working (workshop) place and not 100% kid proof.
Museum info…
- Opening times: 10am till 4.30pm
- Price: £5 per person
- Address: Norwich Road, North Walsham, Norfolk. NR28 0DS
- Website: Norfolkmotorcyclemuseum.co.uk
Re the opening times – We got the feeling the opening/closing times aren’t set in stone and being as they are a business there may be times (shows, events, personal stuff etc) when they may not be open. We turned up around 3pm and they were open but if your traveling a way to get there you may be better off calling ahead to check.
Some of the badges from the different manufacturers bikes on display
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Disclaimer: The information on this page is correct to the best of our knowledge. But the info should NOT be taken as 100% accurate as we can, occasionally make mistakes!
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