The Trust offers financial assistance to individuals or groups to carry through restoration or improvement projects to completion. The Trust also invites enquiries about sponsoring one or more Awards.
Daniel Abbott The winter of 1946/7 was one of the coldest and longest ever recorded in this country, and in meteorological circles has attained almost mythical status. When the thaw came so did a huge amount of rain, which with the melting snow, frozen ground and numerous tidal surges caused many rivers to burst their banks, including the...
Karl Carter In this category the National Transport Trust usually recognises people who have undertaken a specific restoration project. But there are also those who work to assure the very basis on which the future of preservation of our transport heritage rests. Preservation cannot happen without ongoing stream of people with the right...
Tony Agar Our Preservationist of the Year became involved, or captivated, by the de Havilland Mosquito while a member of the Air Cadets. The Mosquito is an unusual aircraft in that it was made largely of wood, from components created in furniture factories and glued together in aircraft factories in England, Canada and Australia. It was...
Allan Winn Our Preservationist of the Year is by professional training an aeronautical engineer and a journalist. He has edited and published magazines such as Flight International and Commercial Motor.When he left the publishing world he took up a full time position at Brooklands Museum as Director and CEO, having already served for 12 years as...
Association of Rootes Car Clubs and the Rootes Archive Centre Trust Our Preservationist of the Year Award this year is unusual in that it recognises the preservation not of a vehicle but of an archive of precious information and drawings. In 2002 the Chairman of the Association of Rootes Car Clubs, which had been founded in 1982, took a call...
Dan Cross - The Daniel Adamson was built by Cammell Laird in Birkenhead in 1903, and named the Ralph Brocklebank. She was ordered by the ShropshireUnion Railways & Canal Company to tow long strings of barges to Liverpool. She also carried passengers between Ellesmere Port and Liverpool.After the First World War, canal traffic continued...
David and Rick Bremmer, and Theo Willford Two brothers and a friend found the remains of a Bristol Scout flown in 1916 by the Bremners’ grandfather in support of the Gallipoli campaign. They rebuilt the aircraft to flying condition This is their story: My brother and I had inherited the flying bug and had...
Duncan Pittaway restored the FIAT S76 land speed record attempt car to full working order. He was presented with the award by HRH Prince Michael of Kent who went for a spin with Duncan in his monster car at Brooklands - breathing fire and smoke to everyone's delight
Clive Purser lead the preservation of Steam Tug Challenge which is 110 feet long, 27ft wide, and draws over 14 feet. Shewas built in 1931 for the Thames Estuary, North Sea and English Channel. In 1940 she took part in Operation Dynamo, so she is a Dunkirk Little Ship, albeit one of the bigger survivors. In 1942 she helped to install...
Malcolm McKeand - the 2013 Award Winner! The Preservationist of the Year award for 2013 goes to Malcolm McKeand for the 18-year project to restore the 1911 Bristol Pilot Cutter Kindly Light. Malcolm's interest in traditional boats and sailing started very young, and in his twenties he became fascinated by the old sailing Bristol Channel pilot...
John Romaine - the 2012 Award Winner! The Preservationist of the Year award for 2012 goes to John Romaine for his collection of heritage aircraft restored painstakingly at Duxford. In particular the award marks the restoration to factory condition of Mk1 Spitfire P9374. Restored fromremnants originally recovered from a Calais beach, the aircraft...
Mark Walker - the 2011 Award Winner! The Preservationist of the Year award for 2011 goes to Mark Walker. The award is given to mark years of work in the restoration of a very special and unique car. Built 106 years ago by Darracq, the car was designed especially forsprint racing. It broke the record for the flying kilometre at 109 mph on its...
Derek Gransden - the 2010 Award Winner! The Preservationist of the Year award for 2010 goes to Derek Gransden for his leadership of the VIC96 trust. When the Maryport maritime museum closed several vessels were left to an uncertain fate. A group of enthusiasts from SE England decided to restore VIC96, one of the last Victualling Inshore Craft...
Peter Vacher - the 2009 Award Winner! The Preservationist of the Year award for 2009 goes to Peter Vacher. The award is given in recognition of the repatriation from India and restoration to flight of Hawker Hurricane Mk1 R4118, the sole surviving Hurricane from the Battle of Britain in flying condition.
Michael York - the 2008 Award Winner! The Preservationist of the Year award for 2008 goes to Dr Michael York, Chairman of the Severn Valley Railway. The award recognises his achievement in leading his organisation through a tremendous struggle against the adversity caused by a natural disaster. The flooding of June 2007 when the River Severn...
Dr Robert Pleming The Preservationist of the Year award winner 2007 - a person who has achieved something exceptional in a particular year, but, in this case, one might argue that the period covered is closer to ten years. Receiving the 2007 Preservationist of the Year Award from Prince Michael was Dr Robert Pleming, CEO of the...
Henry Dukes Just after his ninth birthday, Henry, the third generation of Austin Seven enthusiasts in his family, found a completely derelict 1937 Ruby engine in a pile of scrap. It was seized and had not run for over sixty years. He was very keen to find out how it worked and just eight months later, after a great deal of hard work, he had it...
National Transport Trust Commemorative Awards With the exception of the Sir William McAlpine Award, projects winning a National Transport Trust Commemorative Award are selected from those already awarded Restoration Awards each year, and as such, are recognised as the best of the best of each year's restoration projects receiving a...
Barry Ford Barry joined the Royal Navy at the age of 15 and served on a number of ships culminating in the Royal Yacht Britannia. On leaving the Navy he joined the Royal Navy Auxiliary Service, a voluntary organisation which was disbanded in 1993 at the end of the Cold War. Barry then joined the Maritime Volunteer Service and also volunteered on...
The National Transport Trust makes loans to groups, associations and individuals at advantageous rates for the restoration of artefacts - whether mobile or part of the infrastructure. Applications must be supported by a simple business plan which demonstrates the financial viability of the project. A sample business plan is available on request from the Treasurer.
The Trust does occasionaly make Awards for schemes which further the preservation movement. Again if you wish further information please contact the Treasurer.