Toad Hall Car Museum
toad hall is a very fascinating place. i went here 10 years ago as a child and my only real memories were an old man letting us in and then running inside to tend to business, leaving us completely unsupervised with his collection of red cars. that man is bill, i didn’t ask him of his age but i would guess it to be mid eighties. as it stands, it is a sort of public access view at genuine barn finds. the vast majority of these cars have not been road legal since 2003, and almost all have not been running for a similar amount of time.
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toad hall was opened to the public around 30 years ago. bill bought the property that the museum sits on years previous and opened a bed and breakfast out of the house on the lot, which at the time was an incredibly lucrative business. inspired by his past days racing a blue 1972 240z, bill used this now extra money to build a large carport and start collecting a small fleet of just red cars. this habit of buying cars increased with the early advent of the internet and online classifieds. due to this most of the cars come from the west coast, and even after sitting in a barn for thirty years remain very free of rust. bill continued collecting until he had four sheds and about fifty to sixty cars, when he stitched all the sheds together and opened the building to the public as toad hall car museum.
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as the bed and breakfast industry started to slow down, with the advent of more hotels and home rentals in the area, bill started to sell of his collection, slowly, in order to keep his business afloat. what is left now is about twenty cars in varying conditions. two esprits, two TVRs, three datsuns, two 1600s and a 510, several mgs, a few triumphs, a bentley, outside and once a vehicle for the bed and breakfast, and an s2000, the only car still on the road. i wouldn’t recommend this place for everyone, it takes someone into the craft to appreciate what is going on here, a man’s fleeting passion. if you’d like to, stop by and give bill a visit, i’m sure he’ll appreciate it!
