A COLLECTION of model lorries has been donated to the Atwell-Wilson Motor Museum in Calne.

The collection, made by the late Jack Spittle, who lived in Wolverhampton, was donated to the museum by Mr Spittle’s wife, Beryl.

Mr Spittle was born in 1922 and started driving on the day war broke out in 1939.

He drove a lorry for his parents and later worked for Goodyear Tyres and Ever Ready Batteries before starting up his own business, Spittle’s Transport.

Suffering from arthritis of the spine, he was told to give up driving and retired aged 57.

He then spent the next 30 years making the models that are now in pride of place at the museum, proudly named The Jack Spittle Colllection.

Mr Spittle then went on to purchase two vintage lorries and travelled to shows within a 50-mile radius of Wolverhampton, proudly displaying the models laid out on the flat bed of one of these lorries. He died in 2009.

Mrs Spittle visited the museum early in March and in mid-April after receiving a visit from Michael Bennett and David Edwards of the museum in January.

She had been put in touch with them through a mutual friend who runs the Heritage Motor Centre Motor Museum in Gaydon, Warwickshire.

Shortly after Mrs Spittle’s visit, the museum received a call from Mrs Spittle’s friend Val, saying that she was willing to donate the whole collection to the museum.

Mr Edwards, one of the directors at the museum, said: “I must say our biggest thank you goes to Beryl who took the decision to entrust us with looking after this wonderful collection and to Jack, without whom none of us would be here celebrating this display today.”