Norfolk Tank Museum: bang on track with history and driving experiences like no other

As soon as you arrive at the Norfolk Tank Museum in Forncett St Peter, you cannot help but be impressed.

You are welcomed by an arsenal of military weapons and vehicles - a Czech anti-aircraft gun here, a few all-terrain vehicles there - you know, the usual things you have in your front garden.

Parking up, we met Stephen Machaye, the museum’s chairman and curator, who was going to take us on our tour and then later let us drive some military muscle.

The site houses around 25 different armoured vehicles, weapons and militaria, mainly from the 20th century and the Cold War period, as well as artillery, uniforms and an extensive collection of British small arms.

Stepping inside, you cannot help but smile as your eyes take in the three giant tanks sat at the back, with a selection of reconnaissance vehicles and, of course, one of the many museum highlights, Deborah II, sitting centre stage.

In 2017, Channel 4 approached Stephen to make a reproduction with Guy Martin of an original Mk IV tank to celebrate the Battle of Cambrai, which the original tanks took part in between November 20 and December 7, 1917.

It took a team of people from the museum six months, working 18 hours a day with a JCB-built hull to complete the project in time to take Deborah to France for November 11 the same year.

After being given a chance to take in this amazing space, Stephen started to talk to us about how the concept of tanks came about.

The invention and the distribution to both sides of machine guns had created a stalemate in the First World War and chiefs here were looking for new weapon ideas to make a breakthrough.

William Ashbee Tritton, an agricultural machinery expert with Major Walter Gordon Wilson came up with ‘Little Willie’, which was a prototype in the development of tanks at the end of 1915.

The development of the first Mk I tanks were tested on a top-secret site on Elveden Estate in Suffolk, with some of the demonstrations conducted in the presence of King George V.

Stephen explained from there though it was a gruesome period of battlefield trial and errors to get to the machine that was put on the battlefields of Cambrai.

It blew my mind thinking about the amount of people that laid down their lives to evolve these war machines.

We were then given the chance to get inside Deborah II, to experience the conditions for ourselves.

The museum prides itself on being interactive, offering unique hands-on experiences, and this was like nothing I had done before.

Inside, you instantly got a taste of how uncomfortable and vulnerable the crews must have been and Stephen’s description of what it might have been like added to that.

Deborah II is an eight-man tank; four men would have driven her and four would have been on the machine guns.

After a short time driving, the temperatures inside would have been around 50°C, the noise would have been so loud that hand signals had to be used and, with no modern day exhaust system, fumes would have been in the tank constantly.

The lack of vision from the periscope slots at the front really gave a feeling of vulnerability. I could not fathom what it would have been like to take this into battle with shells going off around you.

After we got out of Deborah, the tour turned to more familiar looking tanks: a 52-tonne Centurion AVRE FV4003, which saw active duty in the Gulf War in 1991; a Centurion Mk 13 FV4017, with infra-red night vision; and a 53.5-tonne Chieftain Main Battle Tank.

Squeezing myself into the latter, this three-person tank was a lot tighter than Deborah, with the ammunition loader on the left in the turret and the gunner in front of the commander’s legs just behind him on the right. Space is a commodity in warfare.

The tour finished with a look at the museum’s reconnaissance vehicles and into the site’s armoury, looking at the machine guns that started it all, as well as a history of guns from the First World War to modern day.

Stephen’s knowledge and enthusiasm for tanks and everything associated with them was absolutely top drawer. For someone who knew nothing about warfare, he taught me so much.

With the tour complete, it was time to get behind the wheel of two special vehicles – first up, a Hagglunds BV 206.

This all-terrain two-part fully-tracked machine, initially used by the Swedish armed forces, is fully amphibious and can operate in temperatures from -32°C to +46°C.

Driving around the museum’s off-road assault course and test track, you really felt you were driving a military vehicle. Despite its weight, if you put your foot down, it really showed the versatility of such an adaptable machine.

The course definitely showed what the BV 206 could do as well, as it tore through the steep hills with minimal effort and the drops on the other sides were no match for this simply extraordinary bit of kit.

But our fun was not over yet and fresh out of the museum came a Saladin Armoured Car.

Believed to have served with the British Army in the Middle East in the 1960s and ‘70s and also in Northern Ireland, this was an absolute dream to drive.

Driving this beauty was pure joy – no wonder it is such a fans’ favourite at the site’s annual Armourfest event.

The Saladin’s pre-select gearbox, with its five forward and reverse gears, did take some getting used to but, once you understood it, this six-wheeled 11.3 tonne vehicle flew around the course and I wished I could have just kept going around and around.

The whole day was fantastic and something I will talk about for the rest of my life.

On top of the hands-on exhibits, Stephen’s immense knowledge and enthusiasm was infectious and the Norfolk Tank Museum is definitely a place I would recommend to everyone, petrol-head or not.

To find out more about Norfolk Tank Museum at Forncett St Peter, go to norfolktankmuseum.co.uk.

Museum admissions are £8 for Adults, one accompanied child is free, extra children aged between five and 12 is £4 and 12 to 17-year-olds is £4.

Driving experiences can be done between May and October, whilst the museum is closed to the public, usually Mondays, Fridays or Saturdays - contact the museum for more details.