Brooklands, near Weybridge in Surrey, has a remarkable modern heritage entirely born during the course of the 20th century. It was the birthplace and cradle of British motorsport and aviation, leading to extraordinary engineering and technological achievements over eight decades, starting from the early 1900s. Today, the site’s dual historic importance is recognised in its designation as a local Conservation Area and nationally as one of the youngest Scheduled Monuments in the country.
This was the first purpose-built motor racing circuit in the world. It opened in 1907 and many early speed and endurance records were set on its banked race track. It also attracted many aviation pioneers before the first world war and became a leading aircraft design, training and manufacturing centre.
Motor racing ceased with the outbreak of war in 1939 and aircraft building by the company Vickers took over the entire site and expanded beyond it. By the time the industry closed in 1987, Brooklands had produced nearly 19,000 aircraft, from Hurricane fighters and Wellington bombers to VC10 and Concorde airliners, more planes than anywhere else in Europe to this day.
The Brooklands Museum Trust was set up to conserve, protect and interpret this historic environment, and has overseen the rapid development of Surrey’s biggest museum site since the early 1990s. It is now home to a large and important collection of motoring and aviation exhibits, ranging from giant pre-war racing cars to an unparalleled collection of Hawker and Vickers-British Aircraft Corporation machines built nearby.
Last November saw the completion of the latest and most ambitious stage in the Re-Engineering Brooklands project when the museum opened the spectacular Brooklands Aircraft Factory and Flight Shed, part of an £8.4m National Lottery-funded scheme.
Taking off
The last surviving wartime hangar was erected on the finishing straight of the racetrack in 1940, blocking the iconic view of the track and effectively separating the two key aspects of the site’s history. The plan was to restore them both by rearranging the physical layout of the plot. The Bellman Hangar is a prefabricated structure, which has now been dismantled, renovated and re-erected a few metres away, off the race track, allowing the finishing straight to be opened up again as a venue for large-scale displays, as it often was before the war.
Meanwhile, the interior of the relocated Bellman Hangar, now renamed the Aircraft Factory, has been transformed into a permanent display that tells the story of 80 years of aircraft design and manufacture at Brooklands. This is an ingenious solution and allows for improved interpretation of the site while enhancing the sustainability of its environment and surviving infrastructure.
As a visitor to the Aircraft Factory you are invited to “clock in” and immerse yourself in appreciating the skills involved in aircraft manufacture, which you can try out in various hands-on workshops. You may well find yourself in conversation with the redoubtable Hilda Hewlett, played by a costumed actor. In 1911 she became the first woman to qualify as a pilot in the UK. She will explain to you how she opened the first flying school in the country at Brooklands and taught many young pilots to fly. Her early pupils included Tommy Sopwith, who soon after set up his own aircraft factory in Kingston-upon-Thames and produced many of the finest British fighters of the first world war.
The factory floor area is designed to evoke an authentic manufacturing atmosphere, moving from the pioneering early machines built of wood and fabric to the sleek metal fuselages of modern jets. The centrepiece of the display is the Brooklands-built Wellington bomber (codenamed “R” for Robert), the sole survivor of the type that saw active service in the second world war. This one was ditched in Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands in 1940 and only rescued from the depths in 1985 after being located by an American team searching in vain for Nessie.
The plane has not been fully restored, leaving its body frame and wings unfinished to reveal its structure as if half-built. It is beautifully lit to reveal the strong but lightweight honeycomb-like geodetic design structure beneath its outer skin. This unique frame was designed by the engineer Barnes Wallis for airships and adapted for aircraft that were built by the engineering firm Vickers when he worked at Brooklands in the 1930s.
Focus on learning
The Wellington and other aircraft are displayed with their major components in various stages of completion on “assembly lines” running through the factory, with film projections above them on the walls of the hangar. A restored Hawker P1127 “jump jet” prototype looks out over the factory floor from a new mezzanine level that tells the story of aircraft design. Here, visitors can explore the challenges and compromises of designing aircraft, using computer screens to try out alternative body shapes and propulsion methods for the planes. Think you can do better than Barnes Wallis? Well, you quite possibly can – his proposals for what became the Anglo-French built Concorde were turned down.
From the factory mezzanine a walkway leads to the new Flight Shed building, which houses some of the museum’s working aircraft as well as radar and radio equipment, and a permanent exhibition on pioneering pilots.
The highlight here, still under careful restoration by volunteers, is a long-lost Hawker Hurricane with a curious story. It was brought back to its birthplace from a remote site in the far north of Russia, where it had been sent to serve in the Soviet Air Force after the German invasion of the Soviet Union. It was shot down in a dogfight with the Luftwaffe in 1942 and left untouched for more than 50 years before being repatriated. It will never fly again but once it is fitted with a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, the Hurricane will be able to taxi out onto the Brooklands finishing straight.
The new facilities of the Flight Shed are enabling the museum to expand its learning programmes, which aim to inspire school children and students in Stem (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects. This is a particularly welcome initiative as my impression is that the museum sector in general, dominated as it is by a strong arts bias, is not pursuing Stem in museum learning and education with much effort or enthusiasm.
Brooklands relies heavily on volunteers, many of whom have left or retired from the aviation industry, but will need to attract more to sustain its development. The museum is working on this by promoting Stem-based formal sessions for schools and informal learning activities for all ages, with a monthly club for children under five, a Saturday science club for visitors aged age 13 to 16 and an imaginative range of talks and activities for different adult audiences. Transport and engineering museums are still heavily male and enthusiast dominated, but Brooklands is clearly branching out further with some success.
The new workshops in the Flight Shed will become home to an aviation heritage skills course so that the ability to restore and conserve historic aircraft can be passed on to a new generation. It is particularly appropriate that Brooklands is broadening its activities in the Year of Engineering, a nationwide campaign announced by the UK Space Agency to boost public interest in an industry that is keen to attract more skilled workers, especially women.
A visit to the re-engineered Brooklands could be just the thing to engage you and your family’s interest. Before you visit, take a look at the museum’s new website, which is one of the best I have come across. It is attractive and easy to navigate, with high-quality images and snappy text – just right for promoting a museum that is fun to visit, but has a serious heritage purpose that deserves our support.
Oliver Green is a research fellow at the London Transport Museum
Main funders Heritage Lottery Fund; estate of Vaughan and Jane Davis; estate of Alan Burrows; Michael Bishop Foundation; Bamford Charitable Foundation; Surrey County Council; Arts Council England; Garfield Weston Foundation; Foyle Foundation; BAE Systems
Architect Thomas Ford & Partners
Structural engineer Alan Baxter
Project manager Focus Consultants
Design and graphics Ralph Applebaum Associates
Lighting design Michael Grubb Studio
Display cases Showguard
Mounts Richard Rogers; Conservation by Design; Plowden & Smith
AV design Sysco Productions
Admission Adult £13.50; children £7 (under-5s free); family (2 adults and up to 3 children) £35; MA members free
This was the first purpose-built motor racing circuit in the world. It opened in 1907 and many early speed and endurance records were set on its banked race track. It also attracted many aviation pioneers before the first world war and became a leading aircraft design, training and manufacturing centre.
Motor racing ceased with the outbreak of war in 1939 and aircraft building by the company Vickers took over the entire site and expanded beyond it. By the time the industry closed in 1987, Brooklands had produced nearly 19,000 aircraft, from Hurricane fighters and Wellington bombers to VC10 and Concorde airliners, more planes than anywhere else in Europe to this day.
The Brooklands Museum Trust was set up to conserve, protect and interpret this historic environment, and has overseen the rapid development of Surrey’s biggest museum site since the early 1990s. It is now home to a large and important collection of motoring and aviation exhibits, ranging from giant pre-war racing cars to an unparalleled collection of Hawker and Vickers-British Aircraft Corporation machines built nearby.
Last November saw the completion of the latest and most ambitious stage in the Re-Engineering Brooklands project when the museum opened the spectacular Brooklands Aircraft Factory and Flight Shed, part of an £8.4m National Lottery-funded scheme.
Taking off
The last surviving wartime hangar was erected on the finishing straight of the racetrack in 1940, blocking the iconic view of the track and effectively separating the two key aspects of the site’s history. The plan was to restore them both by rearranging the physical layout of the plot. The Bellman Hangar is a prefabricated structure, which has now been dismantled, renovated and re-erected a few metres away, off the race track, allowing the finishing straight to be opened up again as a venue for large-scale displays, as it often was before the war.
Meanwhile, the interior of the relocated Bellman Hangar, now renamed the Aircraft Factory, has been transformed into a permanent display that tells the story of 80 years of aircraft design and manufacture at Brooklands. This is an ingenious solution and allows for improved interpretation of the site while enhancing the sustainability of its environment and surviving infrastructure.
As a visitor to the Aircraft Factory you are invited to “clock in” and immerse yourself in appreciating the skills involved in aircraft manufacture, which you can try out in various hands-on workshops. You may well find yourself in conversation with the redoubtable Hilda Hewlett, played by a costumed actor. In 1911 she became the first woman to qualify as a pilot in the UK. She will explain to you how she opened the first flying school in the country at Brooklands and taught many young pilots to fly. Her early pupils included Tommy Sopwith, who soon after set up his own aircraft factory in Kingston-upon-Thames and produced many of the finest British fighters of the first world war.
The factory floor area is designed to evoke an authentic manufacturing atmosphere, moving from the pioneering early machines built of wood and fabric to the sleek metal fuselages of modern jets. The centrepiece of the display is the Brooklands-built Wellington bomber (codenamed “R” for Robert), the sole survivor of the type that saw active service in the second world war. This one was ditched in Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands in 1940 and only rescued from the depths in 1985 after being located by an American team searching in vain for Nessie.
The plane has not been fully restored, leaving its body frame and wings unfinished to reveal its structure as if half-built. It is beautifully lit to reveal the strong but lightweight honeycomb-like geodetic design structure beneath its outer skin. This unique frame was designed by the engineer Barnes Wallis for airships and adapted for aircraft that were built by the engineering firm Vickers when he worked at Brooklands in the 1930s.
Focus on learning
The Wellington and other aircraft are displayed with their major components in various stages of completion on “assembly lines” running through the factory, with film projections above them on the walls of the hangar. A restored Hawker P1127 “jump jet” prototype looks out over the factory floor from a new mezzanine level that tells the story of aircraft design. Here, visitors can explore the challenges and compromises of designing aircraft, using computer screens to try out alternative body shapes and propulsion methods for the planes. Think you can do better than Barnes Wallis? Well, you quite possibly can – his proposals for what became the Anglo-French built Concorde were turned down.
From the factory mezzanine a walkway leads to the new Flight Shed building, which houses some of the museum’s working aircraft as well as radar and radio equipment, and a permanent exhibition on pioneering pilots.
The highlight here, still under careful restoration by volunteers, is a long-lost Hawker Hurricane with a curious story. It was brought back to its birthplace from a remote site in the far north of Russia, where it had been sent to serve in the Soviet Air Force after the German invasion of the Soviet Union. It was shot down in a dogfight with the Luftwaffe in 1942 and left untouched for more than 50 years before being repatriated. It will never fly again but once it is fitted with a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, the Hurricane will be able to taxi out onto the Brooklands finishing straight.
The new facilities of the Flight Shed are enabling the museum to expand its learning programmes, which aim to inspire school children and students in Stem (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects. This is a particularly welcome initiative as my impression is that the museum sector in general, dominated as it is by a strong arts bias, is not pursuing Stem in museum learning and education with much effort or enthusiasm.
Brooklands relies heavily on volunteers, many of whom have left or retired from the aviation industry, but will need to attract more to sustain its development. The museum is working on this by promoting Stem-based formal sessions for schools and informal learning activities for all ages, with a monthly club for children under five, a Saturday science club for visitors aged age 13 to 16 and an imaginative range of talks and activities for different adult audiences. Transport and engineering museums are still heavily male and enthusiast dominated, but Brooklands is clearly branching out further with some success.
The new workshops in the Flight Shed will become home to an aviation heritage skills course so that the ability to restore and conserve historic aircraft can be passed on to a new generation. It is particularly appropriate that Brooklands is broadening its activities in the Year of Engineering, a nationwide campaign announced by the UK Space Agency to boost public interest in an industry that is keen to attract more skilled workers, especially women.
A visit to the re-engineered Brooklands could be just the thing to engage you and your family’s interest. Before you visit, take a look at the museum’s new website, which is one of the best I have come across. It is attractive and easy to navigate, with high-quality images and snappy text – just right for promoting a museum that is fun to visit, but has a serious heritage purpose that deserves our support.
Oliver Green is a research fellow at the London Transport Museum
Project data
Cost £8.4mMain funders Heritage Lottery Fund; estate of Vaughan and Jane Davis; estate of Alan Burrows; Michael Bishop Foundation; Bamford Charitable Foundation; Surrey County Council; Arts Council England; Garfield Weston Foundation; Foyle Foundation; BAE Systems
Architect Thomas Ford & Partners
Structural engineer Alan Baxter
Project manager Focus Consultants
Design and graphics Ralph Applebaum Associates
Lighting design Michael Grubb Studio
Display cases Showguard
Mounts Richard Rogers; Conservation by Design; Plowden & Smith
AV design Sysco Productions
Admission Adult £13.50; children £7 (under-5s free); family (2 adults and up to 3 children) £35; MA members free
