Brooklands Motor Museum VIsit

On Wednesday 20^th October 2021 a number of our Rotarians, together with two Rotary partners plus a guest, were able to have an enjoyable day visit to the Brooklands Motor Museum near Weybridge in Surrey. In 1907, the site became the world’s first purpose-built racing circuit with racing continuing there until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.

The Brooklands Automobile Racing Club (BARC) re-opened the site for racing in 1920; and in 1926 the RAC organised at Brooklands the first ever British Grand Prix. In fact, a number of highly popular race meetings were held at Brooklands throughout the 1920’s and 1930’s including the Junior Car Club’s famous 200 miles race. Several members of the BARC were also members of the Brooklands Flying Club and the airfield there became a lively part of the track.

The BARC held its last ever meeting at Brooklands on 7th August 1939 when the site was devoted to the production of Vickers and Hawker aircraft including Hawker fighters and Wellington bombers. After the war the site became crucial to the development of civil airliners.

Vickers designed and built the Viking and Viscount there, and in 1960 Brooklands became the home of the British Aircraft Corporation with more of the Concorde supersonic airliner being built at Brooklands than anywhere else.

The Brooklands Museum is located on some 30 acres of the original 1907 motor-racing circuit. It includes four Listed buildings: the 1907 Brooklands Automobile Racing Club Clubhouse and Members' Hill Restaurant buildings, the 1911 Flight Ticket Office, and a 1940 Bellman aircraft hangar. It is also the present-day site of the London Bus Museum.

Besides what has been described as the “looming presence” of the racing track itself, there are on display a huge number of racing cars and motorcycles through the ages including the Grindlay Peerless, Brooklands circuit 105-mph lap-record holder. Also located at Brooklands is the Barnes Wallis Stratospheric Chamber, designed to study the effects of high-altitude flight, as well as examples of the famous “bouncing bomb”. And there are a number of historic aircraft exhibits on the Brooklands site including Delta Golf which was the first Concorde jetliner to carry 100 passengers at Mach 2, as well as a Viscount airliner once piloted by Rotarian Peter Miles MBE who was among our party of Rotarians on the day.

A great day was had by all and we were grateful for largely benign weather with a heavy downpour around lunchtime proving to be mercifully short!