Last Sleigh Standing...
30 November 2016
Help us find the lost Co-op Sleigh rides!
Here at the museum we are launching a seasonal appeal to find photos, memories and staff who worked on the infamous Coventry Co-op sleigh ride and to find the lost members of its fleet!
Appearing in Co-op Department stores up and down the country in the late 1950s, these rolling scenery mechanised sleighs have been a fond Christmas memory for generations of children (and grown ups!) for many years. The Coventry Co-op Sleigh Ride, believed to be the only vintage motorised sleigh ride in the country remaining in working order, and is now proudly housed at the museum.
An estimated 1.3 million children and adults have used the sleigh to meet Santa during its lifetime, with family members from across the world making a trip back home every year to enjoy the sleigh ride.
All of our collected items at the museum come with a story.
We want to know the full story of the Co-op sleighs... but we need your help!
Who made the sleighs? Where in the UK were they? Who worked on them? The list of unanswered questions goes on, and we need your help to put together the pieces of this story.
We're looking for photos, film footage, memories and anecdotes from all over the UK to display with the sleigh each year and share in an online archive.
Memories like this are often lost but play a huge part in our childhoods. We want to keep these memories alive and relive the joy of past Christmas fun every year with the sleigh.
We're also appealing for any of the original engineering team or the company responsible for building the sleigh to get in touch, with a view to them being invited for a special sleigh ride on the 23 December before Santa departs for his trip around the world on Christmas Eve.
Any photos, film, memories and anecdotes can be submitted by:
Post to:
Sleigh Ride Appeal,
Coventry Transport Museum,
Millennium Place, Hales Street,
Coventry CV1 1JD,
e-mail to: ashleigh.moore@culturecoventry.com
or using the hashtag #SleighMemories share on
Twitter @CovTM Facebook /CovTM or Instagram @CovTM