MORE than 120 cars, motorbikes and auto memorabilia will go under the hammer after the closure of Moretonhampstead Motor Museum.

A labour of love for museum founder and curator Frank Loft, the museum opened in 2013.

Despite lengthy efforts to sell the museum and its contents as a whole collection, no buyer has been found.

Now Frank’s lifetime’s collection of vehicles will go on sale at auction in May.

Last year, the retired teacher, who is in his 70s, made the ‘difficult and emotive’ decision to sell up.

He had hoped to pass on his prized collection, put together over decades, as a whole and take over the museum.

It includes more than 150 exhibits including cars, motorcycles and automotive memorabilia.

Among the highlights are a 1930 Hotchkiss AM2 Chantilly car, a final XK Jaguar series, a Wolsey 6/80 and a Morris 1100 with only 16,000 miles on the clock from new.

A 1980s Talbot Sunbeam convertible comes complete with furry dice.

A rare ladies Ajax motorcycle has only one other model in existence, a men’s.

The collection dates back 110 years from an Austin J40 pedal car to a vintage charabanc.

The museum began life after Frank sold his residential school in Dawlish in 2008 which was when, he said, his ‘affliction’ for collecting cars began.

At that time, his collection amounted to just three classic cars and a similar number of motor cycles.

He soon found himself extending barns to accommodate his growing collection which was, by then, attracting visitors from local motoring groups.

He had initially bought a property in Kingsteignton to house his vehicles.

But as the collection grew and outgrew the original site, he moved into an additional barn before taking a ‘leap of faith’ in 2012 and buying the old bus depot which became home to Moretonhampstead Motor Museum.

The original building has an Art Deco frontage having been built in the 1930s as a bus depot serving the Moretonhampstead and the surrounding area.

When Frank took the building on, it was in a very poor state of repair, so, with a small work team, he spent the next 12 months refurbishing, replacing the roof and increasing the display area by building a small section of mezzanine.

This completed phase 1 of the improvements and allowed the museum to open its doors in June 2013 with about 60 exhibits.

Since then, Frank managed two further major development phases so the museum could house the whole collection.

When the museum first opened, there were 70 vehicles, but over the years, it expanded and the collection grew significantly.

It now amounts to more than 150 historic, vintage and classic cars and motor bikes and as well as the main collection, Frank has a range of artefacts and memorabilia.

He had hoped to sell the museum as a going concern and that someone with a similar passion would take over.

The auction will be held over three days on May 14 to 16 by Charterhouse Auctioneers in Sherborne.

www.charterhouse-auction.com