Part 2 - The Brooklands Museum
Although Karl and I visited primarily to see the aircraft and aviation exhibits, and in particular the Vickers Wellington recovered from Loch Ness, I also had a great interest in the history of Brooklands itself, as the birth place of British motor racing, and the 'Golden Age' of racing between the two World Wars.
Apart from the aviation connection, this Museum also displays a large collection of historic racing cars from the early days to present day, and there is also a large London Transport Museum on-site (which we didn't visit), as well as the historic buildings and a section of the famous banked race circuit, of which more later.
But first, a little background to Brooklands.
Located at the once small village of Brooklands, near Weybridge in Surrey, north west of London, the World's first purpose-built circuit was opened in 1907, and consisted of a large, semi-oval track, most of which was banked, and a long, sloping start / finish straight, with a concrete surface. The circuit measured 2.75 miles.
The Clubhouse, garages, and member's enclosures etc were at the northern end, where the museum is today, with the central area being Brooklands aerodrome, with the Brooklands Aviation HQ buildings at the south west edge of the field, inside the circuit.
Racing took place between 1907 and 1939, when the site was taken over by the government for the location of the enlarged Vickers Armstrong aircraft factory, and perhaps the most famous name at this time was Dr. Barnes Wallis, who not only designed the Wellesley and Wellington, but also, of course, invented the 'Upkeep' mine, 'Tallboy' and 'Grand Slam' bombs, among others. (more of his work will be shown later in the thread).
Post war, the site was expanded, inside and beyond the circuit to the west, to become the Vickers Weybridge factory, where such types as the Viking, Viscount and VC 10 were built. With nationalisation of Britain's aircraft industry in the 1960's, Vickers became part of the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC), later British Aerospace then BAe, and the site eventually closed in the early 1980's.
The area once occupied by the Weybridge factory and airfield, is now the huge 'Mercedes World' complex, with race and test tracks on the former runway and taxi tracks, with the south west corner of the former racing circuit now a retail park (still enclosed by part of the banked circuit).
The Museum still has such buildings as the original British Automobile Racing Club clubhouse, most of the original race circuit wooden buildings, part of the start / finish straight, banked circuit and 'Member's Bridge', and the original Vickers 'Bellman' hangar, the latter having been moved a few meters and re-clad.
It's not really possible to show all of the exhibits in detail (and there are a
lot of cars !) without making this thread rather long and packed with photos, so I will attempt to cover the main areas of interest with a few key photos, starting with the Museum site.
PIC 1. Taken from the Museum guide leaflet, this shows the layout of the Museum.
PIC 2. A period photo showing the Brooklands circuit and aerodrome as it was in the 1920's.
PIC 3. This large display in one of the buildings shows the original circuit, with the Brooklands Aviation site at left, and the Clubhouse area (the present museum site) at the right, with start / finish straight. The preserved banked track and 'Member's Bridge' can be seen at the top, right hand corner.
PICS 4 and 5. The preserved BARC Clubhouse, part of which is a cafe.
PICS 6 to 8. Inside the 'Sunbeam Cafe', named after the Sunbeam racing cars, with some vehicles on display.
PIC 9. The Member's Billiard Room, preserved as it was in the 1930's.
PIC 10. The Club Secretary / Stewards Office at it used to look.
I'll post some more tomorrow, if I'm still awake after a ten hour session of medication at the hospital !