40 Year Flashback – an exhibition looking back to 1978, the year the museum opened

To mark our 40th anniversary, we’ve restored our faithful Austin 7 pick-up truck to its glorious livery. This cute little truck can be seen most days on the museum forecourt where it first appeared in 1978. Today it’s fully operational, having been lovingly restored by our volunteers and staff.

Our new 40 Year Flashback exhibition looks back at the way we were in 1978, the year Cotswold Motoring Museum opened.

A lot has changed in the four decades since and this collection of photographs, posters and sounds tells the story of how the museum began and paints a nostalgic picture of Britain 40 years ago.

So let’s rewind to 1978 and remind ourselves what we were listening to, and what we were watching in the cinema and on TV all those years ago…

What was popular this year?

New on TV in 1978

Blake’s 7
3-2-1
All Creatures Great and Small
Going Straight
Grange Hill

1978’s popular US TV

Happy Days
Charlie’s Angels
The Love Boat
The Muppet Show
Little House on the Prairie


Top 5 UK films in 1978

1 Grease
2 Superman
3 Close Encounters of the Third Kind
4 Saturday Night Fever
5 Revenge of the Pink Panther


1978’s Chartbusters

1 Boney M Rivers of Babylon
2 Travolta & Newton-John   You’re The One That I Want
3 Travolta & Newton-John   Summer Nights
4 The Bee Gees Night Fever
5 The Commodores Three Times A Lady

  • 10th December 2024