The Classic Car Lover Who Created a Museum for His Incredible Collection Don Sidebottom admits he’s something of an addict when it comes to collecting classic cars and historic automobilia. Anyone who visits the famous Lakeland Motor Museum in Cumbria will see the result of that lifelong addiction – in its collection of over 30,000 items.
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on is the man who founded the museum. And it all started way back in the late 1950s and early 1960s when he snapped up a dozen pre-war American cars that were being used as taxis in his hometown of Blackpool. “When petrol rationing came in 166
after the Suez crisis, the taxi drivers all started selling their old pre-war American vehicles because they used so much fuel. They were going for a couple of hundred pounds. So, I bought a dozen!” explains Don. “There were Chevrolets, Oldsmobiles, Chryslers, all sorts. Me and a pal used to do them up, restore them. Then I just started collecting anything to do with cars, automobilia, speedometers, badges, headlights. I suppose you’d say I was a collecting addict – I loved it.” The thousands of visitors who flock to the Lakeland Motor Museum in South Cumbria every year are obviously very happy he loved it so much as the museum is one of the Lake District’s
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most popular attractions. Don, who is 84, is perhaps best known as the entrepreneur who, in 1959, founded the Blackpool based Glasdon Group. It’s now a worldfamous brand making and selling street furniture like benches, bollards, shelters and recycling bins to 115 countries around the globe. It employs nearly 500 people across the UK, France, Sweden and the USA. While Glasdon was work – Don’s growing collection of classic cars was his pleasure. “It was a lovely release from the pressure of running an international business,” says Don. “I needed a diversion and for me that was digging out old cars, barn finds, which were bargains. Then doing them www.lancmag.com
