https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....ff1e8d145d.jpg
Available for Hire.

Needs two of them; he's in there with his wife ... !

How does Old Warden think it's different from Redhill ?

Redhill has a very nice café with an outside seating area immediately adjacent to the taxiway, which attracts lots of locals, people with kids, push bikelists, etc. No charge other than to buy stuff from the caff and as a bonus you get to watch us playing with our aeroplanes, watching he plodicopter and air ambulance and the fixed wing and helicopter training flights at quite a busy airfield (at least at weekends).

Can't imagine anybody would expect to charge admission to watch us messing about.

Hang-on there

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....6f575918a.jpeg

Apart from Redhill having loads of commercial paying customers and no museum to run, you mean ?

The above applies to quite a few aeroclubs (and probably other clubs) I can think of.. Casual visitors are able to drop in to use the facilities: most businesses are happy to have the extra custom.

Dave ReidUK ... the OP said there was an additional charge for the museum and workshops (quite rightly) and the new charge was just for walking through the gate and being given access to the caff. Of course there are commercial businesses at Redhill .. I fly with one of those listed and mentioned 2 others. The point was that the new charge is simply for being there.

I wonder how many club members, PPLs, and indeed commercial flyers started off by just dropping in, uncharged, to an airfield somewhere ...

You may have had issues with your search? The two science based topics you found are learning courses throughout the Science Museum Group. Of course these should be accessible nationwide and not just London.

There's a link to Shildon museum here. As you can see it features heavily on visits from the Flying Scotsman locomotive, exactly as one would have expected.

https://www.locomotion.org.uk/home

And my point, which still stands, is that at Old Warden (unlike Redhill) it's the revenue from visitors walking through the gate that is virtually the only source of income.

I was merely attempting to answer your question:

It will be a bit like when Beeching closed half of the railway stations/lines, the knock on effect came as a surprise in that the busy stations had a fall in numbers because travelers were not able to go to their intended destinations or start from their local stations because they were closed.

My guess is that cafe customer numbers will be reduced and either prices will be increased or opening hours reduced, both of which will further reduce visitor numbers and the downward spiral is gaining momentum. Luckily, there is still plenty of places where you can stop off for a cuppa and a bite to break your road journey without getting striped, some of them even have aircraft activity on flyable days.

If you feel the need to break your journey near to OW you could try Sandy Microlight Club, just by where you turn off the A1 for OW, I had coffee and cake there when I was early for a meeting with someone in Potton a year or two back.

Rans6............

And a fair chunk of those are now not welcome...

I wonder if that is really true....?? For example: does the museum benefit from the hangarage charges from the hangar complex on the opposite side of the runway to the museum site......??

AFAIK the hangarage charges all go into the same pot. The whole site is owned by the Shuttleworth Trust. Another issue is that the Trust over the last decade or more has shown more interest in the Agricultural College than in the flying and aircraft museum aspects, those becoming regarded as a bit of a side show and perhaps even a nuisance. Maybe this is another result of that mindset.

Couldn't the agricultural college easily provide the best snacks and refreshments possible if they reside next door? Attracting more people and increasing revenue not by new admission rules but by quality? They could do "green" food or "historic" menus with -say Edwardian- cuisine.

A completely different approach is taken by St Just at Lands End. They only serve flights to the Scilly Isles but supplement their income by inviting passers-by to their coffee shop and giving 2 hours free parking (normally £4.00). if you buy a cup of coffee (but make sure the staff register you in the APNR system to avoid a penalty charge).

St Just must have changed since we last tried to call. We used to visit the cafe when we were in the area but after they rebuilt the terminal there didn't seem to be anywhere to just get a cup of tea and a bun. We'll be in Cornwall in a few weeks so might give it another try.

Old Warden has probably got a similar big cheese to the one that abolished Friends of Duxford and combined it with Friends of IWM. I found an FOI request online a while ago and it said that of around 5,000 FoD members, 800 signed up.

DHfan the big cheese is one and the same ex Duxford big cheese if you see what I mean. OW has lost its unique atmosphere'. Inevitably some changes due to Covid 19 but not as drastic as this.

Do the private aircraft owners have to pay the £15 charge to go in and access their aircraft ?, that really would be taking the p1ss.

St Just for a cuppa
 

Have been there** this year, and tea and buns still available in the rather grand terminal (In the main entrance and turn off to the right) 'to go with hard runways and yellow coats.'
Not quite the same atmosphere of when the cafe was in the old fire engine workshop, but no charge to go in and plane spot, and it is very close to the Islander and Otter hardstanding. Not quite like the days when a Virgin Atlantic Jumbo was doing GPWS training approaches to the extended runway (400 ft cliffs) which got the locals quite excited when I mentioned they were starting a service to Gatwick !!.
Having refreshed yourself there you can make your way down to Geevor Mine Cafe for some excellent fare and a splendid view of the Atlantic swell pounding the cliffs.
On your way back to civilisation call in to Newlyn for a Jelberts ice cream (only one flavour) and quite the best in the west. On your way to the sea front with said IC you will pass an old Rover dealers who still sell MG's and Rovers at bargain prices. You have missed the Red Arrows display at Falmouth (so did everyone else due low cloud and dz)
No Banner towing around the Cornish coast this year thanks to CV19.