The Tank Museum

Excellent, for anyone with a glimmer of interest in tanks, or indeed engineering. The museum has an embarrassment of riches, and is by far the best museum of its sort in Western Europe ( especially with the French tank museum , Saumur, on the verge of closing). They have many very rare vehicles, from every tank- producing nation, and have far and away the best collection of British tanks in the world. This is in part because they are the army's custodian for a great deal of captured material ( from WW2, Korea, and the various Gulf wars), and the links to the army are underlined by the fact that it's located within yards of an active army base.

The ticket is £13 for an adult- but this allows you return visits in the same year. The killer is the location; it's a long way from any major city, and there is about one train to London per hour). At time of visiting, they had a "Fury" themed display ( most of the Sherman tanks, as well as the Tiger used in filming were borrowed from Bovington).as well as a War Horse" and WW1 exhibition.

This was no where on my radar. We were headed to the coast and saw the brown signs for this place. We stopped near by and had some lunch and the weather wasn't great when we got out. My husband is a huge history buff and we decided to go see what this was about. Oh my we had no idea. This place is unreal. It is a must for anyone who enjoys this type of history. My husband was like a child on Christmas morning he was so excited and to think we really just stubble upon it. They have short tours through out the day on various topics that are part of your admission. The admission fee (14) is good for a year. Meaning you can come back for free for one year. What a great thing if you are local. I would expect you could come back here at least a half a dozen times and still see things. The place is huge. We spent over four hours here. We got to go inside one tank and have a 5 minute chat with a fellow in the tank about life in the tank. We went on another tour for about half a hour that spoke to use about the tanks of WW II. There are various rooms on a number of topics and one room that lets you experience what the soldiers did in the war. One room talks about the horses in the war and to be honest I had to walk quickly through that room as I found it a bit disturbing. You can not imagine the amount of tanks they have here until you are here. It is very well done. I was extremely interested and this is not usually a topic I would enjoy. There is a café upstairs and a large gift shop as well. A large car park and doesn't cost anything to park in. If in the area I do highly recommend making time for this museum.

Of all the museums that I have visited throughout the world, the Bovington Camp Tank Museum is my favorite. In my personal opinion, this museum surpasses the Louvre and British Museum. I am a big tank aficionado, so my opinion is a bit biased.

My last visit on March 12th was the best yet. After shopping at their interesting shop, I purchase my entry pass. I told the cashier that I knew that the Sherman tank used by Brad Pitt in the movie "Fury" was under maintenance and not on display. The cashier calls up senior staff and they give me a personal one-on-one visit with the Sherman tank, which was in the workshop. They did not have to be so nice, but they were, so that only confirms my opinion.

Tanks from all eras may be found at this amazing place. The Brits produced the first tank in history, Little Willie, named after German Imperial Crown Prince Wilhelm. Winston Churchill, at the time Lord of the Admiralty, sponsored a committee to investigate the building of a new weapon, the tank.

Even without a car, the Tank Museum may be reached by taking British Rail to the Wool Station and taking the 104 bus from the Wool Rail station to the Tank Museum entrance.

The largest tank collection in the World.


You could well believe it. This large museum, situated in a modern building. All of the tanks are under cover, so no trudging round in the mud here.


The museum is very well organised and designed to appeal to all ages. There are panels for adults to read, explaining the origin and history of the machines and there are interactive displays for the kids to play with, dotted througout the museum.


We visited during half-term week in October, and the museum had laid on extra activities especially for the kids. Amongst these, our kids especially enjoyed making WWI tanks out of pieces of wood using a hammer and nails (closely supervised of course).


My son enjoyed playing the tank simulator and various rifle target practice.


After going round inside, you can enjoy a good lunch in the spacious restaurant - thankfully, unlike most other attractions during half term, we actually managed to find a table to sit down at.


Following lunch, the museum put on a display of various vehicles on a track at the front of the museum. A commentator tells you about the vehicle whilst it is driven to show off its performance.


You can pay for a 2 minute ride in one of the vehciles, basically a tracked lorry that they have fitted seatbelts to.


This was great fun, part of a fantastic day out.

IGNOR THE LISTING SAYING IT'S IN STAFFORD IT IS NOT, IT'S ACTUALLY IN BOVINGTON IN DORSET BUT QYPE DIDN'T RECOGNISE THE TOWN OF BOVINGTON SO I HAD TO GO THROUGH PLACES NEARBY UNTIL IT RECOGNISED SOMEWHERE JUST SO IT'D ADD IT MAYBE THE WEBSITE STAFF CAN CHANGE IT TO BOVINGTON COZ IT WON'T LET ME.#


Anyway onto the review. An extremely poor day out, very very expensive to get in and to be honest not something that you want to do unless all you want to do is look at tanks. Yes yes I hear you say why go there if you're not that keen on just tanks, well we wrongly assumed it would be a more rounded museum like the Imperial war museum or something like that but we realised after taking out a second mortgage to get in that it is just one boring tank after another and we found we wanted to snooze after half an hour. Don't even allow carers in free or reduced. Plenty of parking but give it a miss.

This tank museum is ranked the top 3 tank museum in the world and I have to say it's up to its ranking. Hundreds of tanks from various periods restored perfectly and stored in air conditioning museum. I can see the British treasure their tank collection very much, unlike the United States Army Ordnance Museum that left all the tanks outdoor and got rusted. Horrible. It's about 2 hour drive from London but you will know it's worth your drive once you get there. It's absolutely a must-go attraction for tank lovers.

If you are really into tanks,armoured cars and all things military then this is the place to visit,they have displays from all eras and areas.
They have around 300 vehicles on display and are all undercover ,so ideal if its raining,they even have a few tanks which you can climb inside and explore.
The displays are organised into categories i.e WW1,WW2 through to modern day challenger tanks.
We particularly enjoyed the section which recreated like the trenches of ww1,where you could walk through and experience trench life including a full size tank over the top of you!!
Overall this is a brilliant attraction to visit,reasonably priced and because they have a cafe there you could easily spend all day here.

Awsome place, They have around 300 tanks and armoured vehicles to see. I personally would have liked to have been able to see into more of them but there was a few you get into.
Tells the history of the tank very well. Great for adults and kids alike with plenty of activities around the activities to keep them busy.
Nice little cafe which is reasonably priced and offers a great view above the exhibits. The entry ticket is valid for a free return withing 12 months which makes it excellent value for money. On certain days they have displays outside, unfortunately none when we visited but details are available on their website. Can easiliy spend a day here.

I took my three sons, aged 10, 8 and 2 to the Tank museum at Easter 2010 and they all loved it. There is a nice balance between the tanks that they can enter, stuff that they could play with, colouring sheets, toy soliders and tanks, an Easter egg hunt and the trenches which was great.


There is some inside to eat you pack lunches which always helps and the gift shop was not too pricey.


The outside tank display was also great fun although because of the weather they didn't have the Germany Tiger tank on display.


The ticket is really good value as you can go back as many times as you want within a calender year and as they enjoyed it so much as we are only an hours drive we will good back a couple of time at least.


Well worth the visit.

One word - Tanks, tanks and more tanks. There is an amazing display of a huge variety of tanks and armoured cars. The only reason for dropping off a star is that the displays that start with exhibits and recreations eventually peter out and become sheds full of tanks as they have so many that they don't know what to do with them.
The tanks start from WWI right through to present day. Not only Brititsh tanks are covered but there are examples from all over the world. It includes some of the more unusual designs such as amphibious tanks and a tank designed to peek over a wall.
There are also interactive exhibits and suits a wide range of ages and family members.