Tigers you can touch: One day at the Tank Museum
The Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset.
Review by Rob Levett-Millett
A collection of over 300 military vehicles sets a high bar of expectation which The Tank Museum somehow obliterates with heavy ordinance. You may look at a map of Bovington, Dorset and see the Museum, its neighbour Monkey World, and assume you have a plan for a two-stage day out. You will assume wrong. There will be no time for Monkey World.
Whether you’re a history buff, engineering nerd, or are far from either, you will easily fill a day and more. Thankfully, all tickets include an annual pass.
A collection filling six galleries, spanning the birth of the modern tank in 1915 to the modern day (with a small cameo from Da Vinci’s concept tank in model form), is home to the most recognisable beasts of mechanised warfare.
Britain’s rhomboid heavy tanks of WWI, the infamous King Tiger, and the game-changing T34 are just a few of the recognisable names nestled amongst a horde of fascinating, terrifying, and at times downright weird mechanical monsters. And as a rare treat for a museum, you can touch them all! Given they were designed to withstand heavy explosives, it would take even the most careless museum patron some effort to cause damage.
The collection itself is only one dimension of the all-round sensory experience the museum offers. Interactive virtual gun ranges, costume stations, a trenches experience and the World of Tanks gaming area; the most fun you can have interacting with an advert.
All ages, abilities and interests truly are welcome. Clear effort goes into meeting the accessibility needs of those with physical, social and mental support needs. Personal testament can be given to its accommodation of neurodiversity and visual impairment. The Museum also holds quiet mornings throughout the year and its ‘On Track’ event aimed at supporting the wellbeing of those associated with the armed forces.
For children, there’s an array of activities to keep the day varied and engaging. Including a soft play area that might be the only in the world to be sandwiched between a cafe bookshop and an 80-tonne tank.
The Museum manages to pay respect to the human impact of war just as well as it entertains however. The Ukraine exhibition is both sobering and informative, showing how war affects real people at the very moment you take in their stories. Likewise personal experiences from modern history are found throughout the museum, never alienating the exhibits from the sombre reality of conflict.
All of this can be found on an ordinary day in Bovington, but the tanks come alive a few days of the year. Tiger Day, in September and April, sees the world’s only working Tiger I in action alongside its WWII rivals. October offers sleepovers and June sees the monumental 3-day-long Tankfest.
Coming to the gift shop, as every museum tour should end, it’s a gallery in its own right. Stretching the imagination of what household items can be rendered tankesque and enough model kits to last a thousand pandemics.
For more information, you could visit https://tankmuseum.org/ but you’d be better off visiting the museum itself.
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