The Brooke girls with the Brooke 25/30 HP Swan Car

The similarity in name, of the girls and this car is no coincidence. My three daughters (and indeed my husband too) come from a family with a rich engineering heritage on this side of the family tree.

In this picture you see the aforementioned and amazing Brooke Swan Car which is part of the collection at the Louwman Museum (more of this later) which we visited this weekend with Granny and Grandpa Brooke. This outrageous car was commissioned by Robert Nicholl Matthewson (who lived in early 20th century Calcutta and desired such a car to shock the local Indian gentry) and built by JW Brooke and Co. of Lowestoft (the boat-building company of Richard's grandfather and great-grandfather). It is now part of the Louwman collection (and a mere five-minute cycle ride from our house!)

The museum itself is a must for any of our visitors who have even a mildly passing interest in cars. It houses a vast private collection of vehicles with not only historical interest but, for those of us who are less engineeringly-inclined, there is still interest to be had by seeing one of the four Sean Connery/James Bond Aston Martins, various F1 cars, the car Genevieve (from the film of the same name) and so, so much more.

(The girls were not aware exactly what the 'Brooke' car looked like - all they were told was 'you will know it when you see it - it's unusual". Quite!)