Sheffield Bus Museum

The South Yorkshire Transport Museum, formerly the Sheffield Bus Museum, is a museum which documents the history of transport in South Yorkshire and surrounding areas. The museum is located in the village of Aldwarke, part of Rotherham. In addition to buses the museum also features the lower deck of a former Sheffield Tramway, a tractor, a lorry, milk floats and an extensive array of bicycles plus static displays of models and memorabilia.

The museum moved to its present location in 2007, when it also changed its name. Since late 2009 there are two units: bay 8 and bay 9.

Monthly open days take place on the second Sunday each month when visitors can view the vehicles and displays in both units and take light refreshments in the museum cafe. Some of the open days during the year feature a particular theme such as a Bus Running Day in May, Models Exhibition in June and the Annual South Yorkshire Transport Rally in September.

Keith Beeden was one of the founding fathers of the bus preservation movement in Sheffield and has been a mainstay of the development of the Museum from a small set of schoolboys in the late 1960s to a full-fledged and respected Transport Museum today. Here he tells the story up to Easter 2007 in his own words. The SHEFFIELD BUS MUSEUM TRUST opened the Transport Museum at the Tinsley Tram Sheds in 1987. The origins of the SBMT were actually much earlier, when schoolboys at High Storrs Grammar School became interested in the local transport scene. By the late sixties a 1946 vintage Leyland PD1 double deck bus had been purchased by a group that was the nucleus of the Sheffield Omnibus Enthusiasts Society, the aim of which was to preserve an old bus. Thus was the local area interest in the conservation of historical vehicles formed.

Together with the South Yorkshire Transport Group (later renamed SYT Society) the two entities combined their interests with the aim of developing a local bus collection policy. From the efforts of various individuals in association with the two parties, a variety of vehicles formerly operated by the Sheffield, Rotherham and North East Derbyshire operators were brought together. They consisted of both single and double deck buses, even including a Rotherham double deck trolleybus. The vehicles were kept on an open site in a building suppliers yard at Heeley. In order to formalise the vehicle collection policy, the Sheffield Bus Preservation Circle was inaugurated.

The South Yorkshire PTE recruited a new Public Relations Officer, named Bruce Hugman. He was extremely interested in the local preservation scene, and quickly made himself known, with some exciting ideas to contribute. Bruce was instrumental in a link with the South Yorkshire Railway Society, bringing another group interested in local transport matters. This broader emphasis, now including rail interests, led to a change of title for the content of the collection, to come into line, the SBPC now became the South Yorkshire Transport Collection, with the aim of formulating a transport collection, on a suitable site to form a museum for public appreciation.

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