MG90 Exhibition Opening in Abingdon

THIS past Sunday saw the opening of a special MG90 themed exhibition on the top floor of the Abingdon County Hall Museum.

The exhibition has been created in collaboration with the MG Car Club to celebrate 90 years of MG motoring. Historical MG artefacts have been loaned to the museum from Kimber House to create the special exhibition, which is open to the public until July 20th.

Amongst the MG90 display are a selection of items which belonged to Cecil Kimber, considered by many as the father of MG, such as Kimber’s overnight bag, ornaments from his desk and fur coat. There is also a selection of original prototype models of some of the most well-known MGs, which were created by hand in the Abingdon factory.

As well as the mayor of Abingdon, Cllr Samantha Bowring, the opening was attended by a number of famous faces from the former Abingdon factory including Don Hayter, Chief Designer of the MGB; Peter Browning, BMC Competitions Manager, and Jimmy Cox and Brian Moylan who both worked on the various record breakers and Works competition cars.

Julian White, General Manager of the MG Car Club said: “This is the first time I’ve seen the completed exhibition and it looks absolutely fantastic! Jane Bowen and her staff at the museum have done such a great job at bringing the history of MG to life.

“I must also thank the MG Car Club’s archive team of Peter Neal and Phil Grinham along with Colin Grant for all their hard work in sourcing and gathering these artefacts together. It is so heartening to see so many people here today to celebrate the car we all love.”

For the official opening the Abingdon Works Centre created an impressive display of MGs from almost every decade on the Market Square outside the museum, with MGs from the 1930s up to the present day, including Mike Allison’s 1935 MG NA Magnette.

Modern MGs were also well represented with a strong mix of Zeds and Fs as well as two MG6s, driven by Richard & Gill Martin and Matt Cheyne, Head of Marketing for MG Motor UK. Matt was visiting Abingdon especially to attend the museum opening and to represent MG Motor UK.

Photos of all the cars can be seen in the gallery at the top of the story.

Sunday 23rd March was chosen as the date for the opening of the exhibition as it marked the start of the 90 day countdown until MG90 at Silverstone.

To find out more about the Abingdon County Hall Museum please click here.