Qualla: Norfolk Tank Museum

Norfolk Tank Museum: Introduction

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Stephen MacHaye started collecting military equipment as a child. By 1995, the purchase of an Alvis Saladin armoured car marked the beginning of something more serious, and by 2011 his collection had grown large enough to become a museum. The Norfolk Tank Museum sits just outside the village of Forncett St. Peter, ten miles south of Norwich, in a setting that is about as far from the mechanised warfare it commemorates as it's possible to get: quiet Norfolk fields, low skies, birdsong interrupted by the occasional engine being run for maintenance. About thirty military vehicles live here. Most of them still work.

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Norfolk Tank Museum: The Collection

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The museum's holdings concentrate on British vehicles from the Cold War era, which is reflected in what fills the main hall: a Centurion Mk 13, a Fox CVR(W) armoured reconnaissance vehicle, a Ferret armoured car, a Sultan CVR(T) command vehicle, and a Saro Skeeter helicopter amon...

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Norfolk Tank Museum: Deborah and Deborah II

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In 2017, Channel 4 approached the museum with an unusual request: would they help build a replica First World War Mark IV Female tank for a television programme? The project — Guy Martin's WWI Tank — brought JCB in to manufacture the hull and major components, with Chasetead maki...

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Norfolk Tank Museum: Armourfest and the Living Collection

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

What distinguishes the Norfolk Tank Museum from many smaller military collections is that the vehicles are kept operational. The museum runs a yearly weekend event called Armourfest, at which most of the vehicles in the collection are driven through an assault course built behind...

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