Frank Loft - Car collector extraordinaire!
As a teacher, Frank Loft probably never thought he’d end up owning one of the top motor tourism attractions in the country - but life can take these curious twists and turns.
Brought up mainly in Hampshire, Frank has lived and worked in Wales, Shropshire, Somerset and Devon, starting his career in special education as a primary school teacher, before moving on to deal with older children and ultimately taking over a failing independent residential school in 1998.
He sold this specialist college school in Dawlish in 2008.
‘That was when my affliction for collecting cars really took hold!’ he said.
He bought a property in Kingsteignton and filled it with vehicles - the collection then took over an additional barn and in 2012, he took ‘a leap of faith’, buying the old bus depo which now houses Moretonhampstead Motor Museum.
His first purchase was a Wolseley 1660, intended as a 21st birthday present for his eldest son: ‘Between collecting it and driving it home, I managed to rationalise to myself that it would never do for him - he ended up with a Mini Metro and I kept the Wolseley!’ grinned Frank, who’s had a fascination with motorised transport since early childhood.
‘I blame my parents - the Christmas I was two-and-a-half they bought me a pedal car. I had watched how the postman opened the front gate, worked it out and I was about two miles away before they caught me!’
His oldest car is a Wolseley dating from 1905. Only 52 were built and only two survive, one of them being Frank’s. His most modern car is a Talbot Samba Cabriolet - in a fetching lilac shade.
In between, there is a fascinating collection - such as the vintage 1929 Rolls Royce which belonged to Mrs Lilley of the Lilley & Skinner shoe empire, or the De Dion Bouton 2.9L Charabanc, commissioned by the Army to take officers to the Western front in France. Apparently a later owner used it to transport his chums on pub crawls!
Frank opened his museum in 2013 with about 65 exhibits. Since then, he’s added a mezzanine floor and the vintage and classic cars and motorbikes, plus items of memorabilia and petrolania, now include 140 vehicles - getting them upstairs must have been a logistical nightmare . . .
‘It’s a very eclectic mixture. Most visitors can identify with some item or another and a lot of people say it’s the memorabilia that really makes the museum,’ said Frank, whose favourite car in his vast collection is a Jaguar XK150, dating from 1959. Finished in British racing green with green leather interior, a Webasto sunroof and chrome wire wheels, this beautiful car has only had four owners and is apparently a joy to drive!
Most of the vehicles’ provenance is also on display, which also provides a fascinating read and a glimpse into times gone by - for example, the AC Anzani Open Tourer, built in 1924, was shipped to India by its first owner, a Mr Price, who died within six months. It was inherited by Mr Price’s sister who brought it back to England, where it spent the majority of its time on blocks. Its third owner was a 16-year-old who only drove the car for two years before it went back into storage again. Now Frank owns it, the car having only recorded 6,708 miles in some 89 years!
Frank, a father of five and grandfather to five grandchildren, was delighted that Practical Classics magazine voted his museum one of the top ten classic destinations in the UK last summer. He’s a proud but very modest custodian of a fabulous collection of automotive heritage.
’I call it my retirement project - or madness, depending on which way the wind is blowing!’ said Frank, aged 69. ‘I’ve always been a workaholic, I have to do something to fill my time - and the museum is now how I do it!’
Jane Honey