The Dunsfold Collection

The Dunsfold Collection is the largest private collection of Land Rovers in the world and comprises many rare prototype, pre-production and one off vehicles from the Series I right through to the current Range Rover. The Collection came into being in 1993, as a progression of a personal collection that was started in 1972 by Brian Bashall and is continued today by his son Philip. The vehicle that started it all was a 1962 ex-military 109-inch APGP wader.

Gradually, the Collection grew in size and today numbers around sixty vehicles.

Because of its size, the cost of looking after such a unique collection of Land Rovers was becoming rather too heavy for the Bashalls to bear. It was therefore decided in 1993 to offer ‘Friendship’ of the Collection to like minded individuals, for a small annual donation. And so, on Saturday 24th October 1993, the first Open Day was held in a field in Dunsfold. This has since become a regular bi-annual fixture on the Land Rover show calendar and now takes place over a whole weekend, when all of the vehicles are on display.

The Collection receives support from both Land Rover and the Heritage Motor Centre at Gaydon. Without this support, many of the vehicles in the collection today would have been lost forever.

I've always been fascinated by the development history of Land Rover and the Dunsfold vehicles in particular, and I became a 'Friend' of the Collection in 2002.