Brooklands Museum facts for kids
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| Established | 1991 |
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| Location | Weybridge, Surrey |
| Type | Aviation museum, Motor museum |
The Brooklands Museum is a cool place where you can explore the history of cars and planes! It's located in Weybridge, Surrey, England, on part of the old Brooklands Motor Course.
This museum officially opened in 1991. It's run by a special group called the Brooklands Museum Trust Ltd. Their main goal is to protect and share the amazing history of the Brooklands site.
Contents
Brooklands: A Place of Firsts
Brooklands is super important because it was the starting point for British car racing and aviation (flying planes!). Many amazing engineering and technology breakthroughs happened here for about 80 years in the 20th century.
The World's First Race Track
A local landowner named Hugh F. Locke King built the racing circuit in 1907. It was the very first track in the world built just for racing! Many speed records were set here.
Early Aviation Hub
Brooklands quickly became one of Britain's first airports. Many brave aviation pioneers came here before World War I. It was also a top spot for designing and building aircraft. Between 1908 and 1987, an incredible 18,600 new planes of almost 260 different types were made at Brooklands!
Companies like Bleriot, Hawker, Sopwith, Martinsyde, and Vickers were based at Brooklands. They played a huge role in the early days of flying. The famous 'Daily Mail Round Britain Air Race' in 1911 even started and finished here. This event and place later inspired the fun 1965 movie Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines.
Brooklands in Wartime and Beyond
Training pilots was a big deal at Brooklands before and between the World Wars. At the museum, you can see how Brooklands helped the British aircraft industry during both world wars. It also played a part in making planes after the wars with companies like Vickers and later British Aerospace.
Vickers bought the site in 1946. They used it to make civilian aircraft. One of the most famous was the Vickers Viscount. They built 444 of these planes. Later, the Vanguard and VC10 airliners also had their first test flights from Brooklands.
How the Museum Started
The War's Impact
The last race at Brooklands happened on August 7, 1939. Soon after, Britain declared war on Germany. All racing stopped. Brooklands then focused only on making aircraft for the war. Vickers built Wellington bombers, and Hawker put together its Hurricane fighters here.
After the War
Six years of war, including air raids, damaged the Brooklands track a lot. The government wanted to keep using the site for making planes. So, in 1946, Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd bought the land.
Saving Brooklands' History
In 1957, a special event marked 50 years since the motor course opened. Ten years later, in 1967, another rally happened. This event helped create the Brooklands Society. This group wanted to keep the history of Brooklands alive and save what was left of the track.
In 1977, the Brooklands Society got permission to plan a museum on 40 acres of the site. But they didn't have enough money to buy the land. Still, members worked hard to clear the track, which had become overgrown since it closed in 1939.
Building the Museum
In 1982, a company called Gallaher Ltd bought the 40-acre site. They kept 10 acres for offices. But in 1984, they leased the other 30 acres to the local council to start a museum.
Work began to restore the old Clubhouse and part of the track. The Brooklands Museum Trust Ltd was officially formed in 1987. Sir Peter Masefield became its chairman, and Morag Barton was the first Museum Director. In 1989, Prince Michael of Kent became the Royal Patron. The museum officially opened its doors in 1991! Morag Barton even received an award for her great work in starting the museum.
Exploring the Museum Site
The museum covers 30 acres of the original 1907 motor-racing circuit. It has four important historic buildings. These include the 1907 Brooklands Automobile Racing Club Clubhouse and the 1911 Flight Ticket Office. There's also a 1940 Bellman aircraft hangar.
You can still see parts of the 1937 Campbell Circuit and the 1907 Finishing Straight. The Members' Banking is the steepest part of the old track. The 1909 Test Hill and a World War II 'Bofors' gun tower are also important parts of the site. The entire Brooklands area was made a special Conservation Area in 1989 to protect its history.
Amazing Collections
The museum is open every day. It shows off a huge variety of cars and planes linked to Brooklands. You can see giant racing cars like the 24-litre Napier-Railton, motorcycles, and even bicycles.
There's also a unique collection of aircraft made by Hawker and Vickers/British Aircraft Corporation. This includes a Concorde (G-BBDG)!
Other cool exhibits include flying replicas of a Bleriot XI and a Sopwith Camel. The Camel is kept in working order and often performs engine demonstrations at museum events. You can also check out a Grand Prix motor racing exhibition with a Formula One simulator!
A big new attraction called 'The Concorde Experience' opened in 2006. In 2008, a full-size working replica of Alliott Verdon Roe's 1908 'Avroplane' was finished and shown off.
The museum also has a working replica of a Vickers Vimy plane. This plane was built in America in 1994. It was used to re-enact three record-breaking long-distance flights from 1919–20. After helping celebrate the 90th anniversaries of the first Transatlantic flight and the first flight from England to Australia, the Vimy flew into Brooklands in 2009. It's now on display in a special Vimy Pavilion. It's kept in working condition and sometimes performs engine demonstrations on the nearby Race Track.
In 2011, the museum received the historic body of the Supermarine Swift F.4 prototype, WK198. This plane held the World Absolute Air Speed Record in 1953!
The museum has celebrated many anniversaries. In 2007, it was 100 years since the Circuit opened. In 2008, it was 100 years of aviation at Brooklands. A special exhibition about Brooklands in the Battle of Britain opened in 2010. It showed how the aircraft factories here were targets during World War II. It also listed the names of people killed when Vickers was bombed.
In 2012, the museum celebrated 50 years of the Vickers VC10 airliner. A new VC10 exhibition was opened. Also, a large 40% scale model of Concorde (G-CONC) was moved to mark the main entrance to the museum.
In 2013, the museum honored Brooklands' role in the famous Royal Air Force 617 Squadron 'Dambusters' attack. The RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight's Avro Lancaster flew over the museum. This was a tribute to Barnes Wallis and the engineers who created the 'Upkeep' mine.
The museum's aviation exhibits also include a 1914 Sopwith Schneider floatplane replica. Volunteers at Brooklands built it. A 1961 BAC/Hunting Percival Jet Provost T.3A also arrived on loan in 2014.
In 2015, the museum received a big grant to help with the Brooklands Aircraft Factory and Race-Track Revival Project. This project involved moving and restoring the 1940 Bellman Hangar. They also built a new Flight Shed and restored the north end of the Finishing Straight. This project was finished and officially opened in 2017.
Supporting the Museum
The Brooklands Trust Members is the official group that supports the museum. It was formed in 2008 when two other groups joined together.
London Bus Museum
The new London Bus Museum opened at Brooklands Museum in August 2011. It used to be a private museum called the Cobham Bus Museum. It displays about 35 historic London buses, some dating back to the 1870s! You can visit both museums with one ticket.
See also
- List of aerospace museums
- List of automotive museums
- List of transport museums
- List of museums in Surrey
