Army loans armoured vehicles to fort museum

Two armoured vehicles have been loaned to a historic fort museum near Hull by the British Army.

A Ferret armoured car and a Saracen personnel carrier have been given to Fort Paull Battery, near Hull, on a long-term loan by the Defence School of Transport (DST).

Nick Taylor, the attraction's co-director, said the vehicles were donated after the DST, which is based at Leconfield, East Yorkshire, saw a negative review of the site which said there was nothing to see.

Taylor said: "Hopefully it will bring more people here, but I think it's just more about adding value to what we're trying to provide."

The fort, on the north bank of the Humber Estuary, opened as a museum in 2000, but closed to the public in 2020.

It then reopened in September 2024 after being restored by Taylor, the site's caretaker, and Nick Moore, who ran a campaign to keep the attraction open.

Taylor and Moore signed a 10-year lease to run the attraction in February last year.

When the museum initially closed the exhibits were auctioned off, Taylor and Moore have had to build up a new collection from scratch since they took over.

Taylor said: "I know as a kid that seeing big armoured military vehicles is pretty cool.

"The DST offered them to us because they were just sitting around at Leconfield gathering dust.

"They wanted to give us something so that we could display some vehicles for people to come and have a look at."

The DST delivered the Ferret, but the Saracen - weighing around 11 tonnes (11,000 kg) - was too heavy for the training centre to transport.

After Taylor and Moore appealed for help on social media, haulage firm East Riding Transport agreed to help and delivered the vehicle on Thursday.

Speaking about the support from the public, Taylor said: "I'm thrilled because it shows that what we're doing is worthwhile."

He added: "To see how the public respond to us for what we're doing, it's really nice and it makes the hard work a lot easier.

"We know that we're doing the right thing."

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