The Restoration & Archiving Trust operates a small museum at Toddington Station. It is located in a former GWR Collett Brake Coach dating from 1935, and houses a display of memorabilia and early scenes of the railway.

You can find out more about the Restoration & Archiving Trust below. In addition, the trust now has its own website which is linked to at the end of the page.

About The Restoration & Archiving Trust

The Restoration & Archiving.Trust was formed in 2000 with two main aims. Firstly, to acquire, restore and make available for public display (primarily on the GWR at Toddington) artefacts of historical significance in a wide variety of areas of interest from small packaging containers through to vintage railway coaches; and similarly to acquire photographic collections of general interest, archiving them digitally and making these available to the public through exhibitions, copy prints of slides, and in the future via the Internet.

A close working relationship was established from the outset with the archiving section of Kidderminster Railway Museum, with the trust archiving the overseas images from their collections. Both photographic catalogues can be viewed by appointment at the Kidderminster museum (tel. 01562 825316).

One particular driving force in creating the charitable trust was to provide a home to nurture and develop collections made by individuals over many years, that subsequently become a problem to the family if the collector loses interest or passes on. A number of the founders themselve have collections that they wish to place in the public domain rather than have them dispersed, thrown away, or exploited for profit after their death.

Future Plans

In addition to the exhibition coach at Toddington, the trust hopes to develop further attractions along the course of the railway. During the winter, the trust holds a programme of slide shows (contact Mike Squire on 01789 299387 for details, or click here). Photographs from the trust's archive will appear on various websites (including this one), and the trust aims to have its own website when time and resources permit. The trust would also like to develop an oral archive of local memories.

How can the trust help you?

We can:

• Place some treasured memento of yours on public display.
• Archive some old photographs for you.
• Give a slide presentation to a group you are associated with.
• Give you the chance to participate in salvage and restoration work, including developing archiving skills.
• Give you the opportunity to meet and interview interesting people (armed with a digital recorder).

The opportunities will always exceed the man hours available. If you have any material you think may be of interest to the trust, or you would like to help with the trust's activities, please contact the trust by telephone or by post:

Tony Bowles 01242 621464
Greg Wigg (Artefacts) 01242 621346
Malcolm Ranieri (Archiving) 01789 297946

The Restoration & Archiving Trust
1 Station Cottages, Stow Road, Toddington, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL54 5DT