In the small English village of Winkley (Devonshire), on the site of a former military training aviation center, there is a unique collection of vintage buses, among which several trucks, an ambulance and a fire engine are crammed. They were put together by Colin Shears, who had been so fond of buses since childhood that he bought one from the Exeter Corporation when it was decommissioned. Then Colin Shears found money for new acquisitions, and soon became the owner of a small fleet.
Thus, in the 1960s, the West of England Transport Collection was born, which today is owned by Colin's son, Daniel Shears, and his partners. WETC now has over two hundred vehicles in storage, most of them owned by Daniel. The air base hangar has become an ideal home for vintage buses: next to the spacious premises are runways where test drives are held from time to time.
Some of the exhibits hit the TV screens: one bus can be seen in the TV series Jeeves and Wooster, another in the Durrells, the third in the movie The Remains of the Day. For outsiders, the collection remains closed, only once a year (and even then not always) buses from WETC are shown to everyone.
