New military museum planned for Warwick in hope of merging collections

An application has been submitted to convert the town centre building to set up a public museum dedicated to the Queen’s Royal Hussars.

The Hussars, the West Midlands cavalry and tank regiment, had its headquarters at 1 Trinity Mews in the 1960s before the building was sold by the Ministry of Defence and turned into offices.

If approved by planners next month, the site will revert back to its military roots in what applicants have assured will have no impact on the historic character of the Grade 11 Listed building.

A statement from the Queen’s Hussars regiment read: “We have had a presence in Warwick for fifty years.

“As a result of army cuts and amalgamations we now wish to combine two museums into a single site.

“The Hussars were offered freehold of 1 Trinity Mews. This was considered to be a perfect setting for the new museum which would be able to house both collections.”

The regiment has a museum in the Lord Leycester Hospital and one in Eastborne which will come together in the new museum if space is granted by Warwick District Council next month.

If granted by planners, the museum would be complete by April 2017 for visitors.

Several other sites in the town were considered, including the Lord Leycester Hospital, but were either rejected by planners or deemed unsuitable due to their location, management status or size.

The three-storey Trinity Mews space was built in around 1847 and internal changes would include replacing a staircase, demolishing partition walls and creating a new entrance archway.

Architects, Brown Matthews Architects state there would be no change to historic features, nor to the adjacent listed building in Priory Road.

No objections have yet been received to the proposal.