Ken Jones visited Aston Manor Transport Museum on it's last open day - entitled Witton Tram Shed ---The Last departures Sunday 16th October 2011

Aston Manor Road Transport Museum occupies the building which was once Witton Tram Depot. It was built in 1882 and still bears the name of Borough of Aston Manor Tramways Depot on a large stone sign above the front entrance. When you see inside the building, all the original tram tracks are still there, although the pits, which stretched almost the length of the building between the tracks have now been filled in. Originally the trams entered through the four large gates at the front of the depot. The two outer gates remain, but the others are now large windows. Although the overhead wires have long since gone, much of the original wooden protection can still be seen in the roof. Whilst in that area we can see evidence of another phase of the buildings history. On 4th December 1940 the roof was badly damaged by enemy bombing. The depot continued to operate without a roof until after the War, when the centre section of roof was replaced. This is still clearly visible today as it is of a different shape and construction to the original roof which still exists at either end. The Depot finally closed in November 1953, after which it was used for storage of buses. This was followed by a period as a car showroom, and then after being empty, it fell into a state of disrepair. August 2nd 1986, was an important day in the museum's future, it was the day they actually had the keys, and saw inside the building for the first time. The building was totally empty, the roof leaked badly and the tram tracks were covered with concrete In the coming months, with the help of Manpower Services Commission the place was transformed . Grant-aid provided a new roof, and the Museum was becoming reality.

In 1988 HRH Prince Charles held his 40th Birthday Party at the museum which opened to the public in 1992. In 2011 the reality ended with no more funding from the Birmingham City Council and no agreement to allow the museum to buy the building. The keys will be handed back at the end of the year. There is speculation that it will become an up market banqueting and function hall linked to Aston Villa football club who already own the car park the museum uses for buses on open days.

The programme states the museum is in discussions with a neighbouring local authority to re-establish the museum so we hope these discussions are successful.

Like the announcement of a closure of a branch line - more people turn up to see the last train depart compared with people who supported the line. So it was today at the transport museum with more buses and visitors than expected, programmes ran out just after lunch and nearly all services had to run duplicate vehicles because the demand was so high. Well if you have to go out - do it on a high. Here's to the next twenty years of Aston Manor Transport Museum and I hope the city realise how important the building is.

Here are some pictures from the day. There were at least 25 buses in service.