A Brief History of our Museum
The building that houses the Museum was built in 1934 for the Canvey & District Motor Transport Co. Ltd. and served a series of similar companies before passing to the Eastern National Omnibus Co. Ltd, which used it until 1978.
Castle Point Transport Museum Society then acquired the leasehold of the depot, later purchasing the freehold, and has since assembled a collection of over thirty preserved commercial vehicles, now forming the Canvey Island Transport Museum’s main display.
Visitors can see classic examples from the rapidly vanishing chassis makers like AEC, Bedford, Bristol, Guy, and Leyland, plus legendary body builders like Eastern Coach Works, Duple, Harrington and Massey Brothers.
While many vehicles are fully restored, others are being rebuilt and undergoing maintenance by their owners or groups of members in our workshops or pit area.
Visitors can also see traditional techniques like wood frame construction and aluminium panel beating that are still being used today, despite these being replaced in modern vehicles by pressed steel and shaped flbreglass.
In addition, the Museum has its own impressive, functioning Model Railway layout, plus there’s a wide variety of transport artefacts on display. The Museum shop sells die-cast models, souvenirs and other transport related merchandise.