PAST TALKS

Our Visit to Brooklands Museum on 19th March 2026 was a special day of reflection on the Hi Tech transportation industry in the Uk. Brooklands was built as a race track. It was built and opened in 1907. It took an enormous effort to build this 2.7miletrack in 9 months. It was the first in the country and enabled car and motorbike owners with a taste for speed to race each other. The first ever Grand Prix was held at Brooklands. The Napier Railton Car achieved the world land speed record at Brooklands which stood from 1922 until 1933. A car with a 23litre aircraft engine capable of 133mph. A video attached shows this car running on the day of our visit. We learned how Barnes Wallis the famous inventor worked here for many years with a number of his inventions including the bouncing bomb being developed here. During the early years Brooklands was the place to be seen - equivalent to being at Ascot for horse racing. In its heyday it had a capacity of 287,000 people.  A railway station was developed to bring people in large numbers to be at the race days.

In 1912 Thomas Sopwith setup a Flying school. He was responsible for building the Sopwith Camel a bi plane that was very successful in worldwar1.  At the start of the first world war the government requisitioned Brooklands as an airfield and the Vickers Aircraft company was based there. Many famous world war planes were developed and built at Brooklands including Wellington Bombers, Hawker Hurricane fighters and Harrier jump jets

Brooklands was heavily involved in the development and building of Concorde and a Concorde is on site to visit, along with other aircraft developed over the years.

The Museum has a good collection of vehicles and planes representing the great engineering history of Great Britain. A number of picture give a flavour of what can be seen at the museum including Buses, motor cars, racing cars, motorbikes, bicycles, and aeroplanes.

It was a fascinating day out and our thanks go to John Wingham for organising it.