Visit to Cae Dai Fifties Museum

A very interesting visit to the Fifties Museum at Cae Dai, Denbigh took place on Tuesday March 24th 2015.  The creator of the museum, Sparrow Harrison, or to give his real name Rob Bartley Harrison MBE, gave us an introductory talk about the museum.  

It had been established partly to give a focus for many of the resident living at Cae Dai and looked after by the Cae Dai Trust.  A considerable amount of material from the 1950's had been accumulated and displayed.  A devastating fire a few years ago destroyed much of the museum but due to the determination of Sparrow and his team a new museum in new buildings in rising from the ashes.

Today there is almost as much in the exhibition as there was in the pre-fire days  including cars, motorbikes, sowing machines, radios, TVs newspapers, cigarette packets, clothes as well as whole kitchens, lounges, bedrooms all set up as they would have looked in the 1950s.

A large part of the museum is set aside for the Great Train Robbery of 1963 and the central feature is the actual lorry that was used in the robbery.  This lorry was partly burnt in the fire and a new cab, copying the original cab, has been built and added to the body of the lorry.  The original, fire damaged, cab is still an exhibit in the museum.

The photographs give a glimpse of this fascinating museum