About
HorsePower is the regimental museum of The King's Royal Hussars, and it occupies one of the handsome brick blocks of Peninsula Barracks on the hill above Winchester, alongside five other regimental collections that together make up Winchester's Military Museums. Its subject is the long transformation of British light cavalry from horse and sabre into the armoured regiment of today, told through the seven regiments that were successively amalgamated to produce the King's Royal Hussars: the 10th Royal Hussars and the 11th Hussars, which merged in 1969 to form The Royal Hussars, and the 14th King's Hussars and 20th Hussars, which became the 14th/20th King's Hussars in 1922 before the two surviving regiments joined in 1992.
The collection is unusually rich in the sort of material that makes cavalry history vivid rather than technical. Hussar uniform was among the most elaborate ever worn by British soldiers — pelisse, dolman, busby, gold lace and, in the case of the 11th, the crimson overalls that made them instantly recognisable — and the museum has the garments, the horse furniture and the sabres to go with them. Alongside these sit medal groups, campaign relics, regimental silver and a considerable body of photographs and personal papers.
Two strands of the story dominate. The first is Balaclava: the 11th Hussars rode in the Light Brigade on 25 October 1854, and the museum's large diorama of the charge's aftermath is one of the most memorable things in any of the Winchester collections. The second is the Western Desert, where the same regiment, by then equipped with armoured cars, served as the reconnaissance element of the 7th Armoured Division and carried its old nickname of the Cherrypickers into a wholly mechanised war.
Displays continue the story through Northwest Europe, the Cold War in Germany, the Gulf, the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan, ending with the Challenger main battle tank that the regiment operates today. Interactive elements — a virtual tour of the Challenger's interior, headgear to try on — are pitched at families, and the whole museum is compact enough to see thoroughly in an hour without ever feeling thin.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- Note the half-hour lunchtime break on weekdays, from 12:45 to 13:15, and time your arrival to avoid it.
- Saturday opening is afternoons only, from midday, and the museum does not open on Sundays.
- Admission is only a few pounds and children under 16 go free, which makes this one of the cheapest museum visits in Winchester.
- Serving and former service personnel are admitted free on production of an MOD90 card.
- Five other regimental museums share Peninsula Barracks, so allow extra time if you want to see more than one.
- The walk up from Winchester station is steep in places; the park and ride bus drops closer to the barracks gate.
- Ask staff about the Balaclava material if the diorama interests you — several of the regiment's own casualties are documented by name.
- The shop is a good source of regimental and cavalry history titles that are hard to find elsewhere.
Highlights
The Charge of the Light Brigade Diorama
The museum's large diorama reconstructs the aftermath of the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava on 25 October 1854, in which the 11th Hussars rode in the second line down the North Valley into Russian guns.
Rather than depicting the charge itself, the scene shows what followed — the broken squadrons, the wounded horses, the survivors making their way back — which is a far harder and more honest thing to put in front of visitors. Supporting displays set out the confused chain of orders that sent the brigade down the wrong valley, and identify the regiment's own casualties by name.
The Cherrypickers and Their Crimson Overalls
The 11th Hussars are the reason a British cavalry regiment ended up wearing crimson trousers. The nickname Cherrypickers came from an incident in the Peninsular War, when a foraging party of the regiment was surprised by French cavalry while picking cherries in a Spanish orchard; the crimson overalls were adopted later in the nineteenth century, and the regiment kept them, in one form or another, for the rest of its separate existence.
The museum has examples of the full dress alongside the working uniforms that replaced it, showing just how far hussar dress had to travel to become practical.
Armoured Cars in the Western Desert
By 1939 the 11th Hussars had traded horses for armoured cars, and they spent the North African campaign as the eyes of the 7th Armoured Division — the Desert Rats — ranging far ahead of the main force in Rolls-Royce and later Humber and Daimler vehicles across country where a wrong turn meant running out of fuel a long way from anyone.
The regiment fired some of the first shots of the desert war and was among the first units into Tripoli. Photographs, personal accounts and equipment from the campaign carry the story of a cavalry regiment fully at home in mechanised warfare.
From Seven Regiments to One
The King's Royal Hussars is the product of a long sequence of amalgamations, and the museum sets out the family tree clearly: the 10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales's Own) and the 11th Hussars (Prince Albert's Own) joined in 1969 to form The Royal Hussars, while the 14th King's Hussars and the 20th Hussars had already combined as the 14th/20th King's Hussars in 1922; the two survivors merged in 1992.
Each contributing regiment keeps its own case, its own battle honours and its own traditions, which makes the museum a good deal richer than a single-regiment collection.
Collections
HorsePower holds the collections of the seven regiments in the lineage of The King's Royal Hussars — the 10th Royal Hussars, 11th Hussars, 14th King's Hussars, 20th Hussars, 14th/20th King's Hussars, The Royal Hussars and the present regiment. Uniforms are a particular strength, from full-dress pelisses, dolmans and busbies to the 11th Hussars' distinctive crimson overalls and modern armoured crew clothing, and are shown alongside swords, horse furniture, regimental silver, medal groups including Victoria Cross material, and campaign relics.
A large diorama treats the aftermath of the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava in 1854, and twentieth-century displays cover the 11th Hussars' armoured-car service with the 7th Armoured Division in the Western Desert, the Cold War in Germany, and operations in the Gulf, the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Interactive elements include a virtual tour of the Challenger tank and headgear that visitors can handle.
Sabre and Saddle
Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century light cavalry: uniform, equipment, horse furniture and the campaigns from the Peninsular War to the Crimea.
Balaclava
The 11th Hussars in the Light Brigade, centred on the museum's large diorama of the aftermath of the charge.
From Horse to Armour
Mechanisation, the Western Desert armoured-car war, and the regiment's service from 1945 to the present day on Challenger tanks.
Themes
Time Periods
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.