Donnington Historic Weapons Collection

The Donnington Historic Weapons Collection is a collection of weapons accumulated by MOD Donnington over a long period of time. MOD(Ministry of Defence) Donnington is now part of the DSDA (defence storage and distribution agency). Historically Donnington was the storage area for all weapons used by the British Army. Part of this function was the disposal of old, captured and obsolete weapons. The majority of these were converted to scrap metal. In the years Donnington has been functioning many items returned for disposal were deemed worthy of retaining because of their rarity or historic significance. In all a collection of over 700 items was amassed varying from civilian and sporting arms to captured foreign weapons. This collection was never seen by the public and was kept within secure storage in Donnington. In 2010 a decision was made by the Ministry of Defence to gift the collection to a public museum. Under the guidance of Kevan Jones MP, then Under Secretary for Defence it was decided that the Combined Military Services Museum in Maldon, Essex would be the recipient of the collection. The museum received a lottery grant to extend its premises to facilitate this and now has it on public display. The existence and details of the Donnington collection and its transfer to a public museum appears in the DSDA (Defence storage and distribution agency) Annual report and accounts for 2008-2009 on page 49 published 16/07/2009 This document is available online and as a printed publication ref ISBN 9780102962086 The opening ceremony of the collection to the public by Kevan Jones, The Under Secretary for Defence, was reported in the Maldon and Burnham Standard on 31/3/2010 There are videos on the internet of the opening ceremony