Brooklands

Brooklands

Sunday we headed towards Didcot Railway Centre and as torrential rain came down we realised the majority of the train exhibits were outside. We then started to considered alternative locations and decided upon Brooklands in Weybridge. As we neared our new destination the weather improved which allowed me to take some great photographs of all the internal and external exhibits.

Brooklands was one of the birth places of British motor sport and had the world’s first purpose built motor circuit with much of the Track and original buildings still there to visit. During the 1920’s and 30’s the track was home to the world speed record and many of the cars can be seen at the museum along with motorbikes.

Also home to aviation industry there are a number of aircraft on site to visit and explore including the main attraction, the first Concorde aircraft ever to carry 100 people at twice the speed of sound, 1,350 mph. After taking the guided tour of Concorde I wanted to take a few additional photographs and started to speak with the volunteer tour guide explaining my college project and book. To my surprise and gratitude he gave me access to the restricted cockpit to take some shots of my book and took my photograph whilst sat in the pilots’ seat. 

When you thought you had seen everything there is the London Bus Museum which is home to over thirty buses ranging from about 1875 to 1979. 

And to complete the day before travelling home, the Velocet bikers club had and an open day with their vintage motorcycles and were holding speed runs up the test hill to get the best time record. The hill had three sections, starting with a gradient of 1 in 8, then 1 in 5 and the top with 1 in 4 and was originally used for cars to test climbing and brakes but was also used for speed records.

Brooklands is an amazing place with a great variety of exhibits and well worth spending a day exploring all the sites. A selection of photographs taken during the visit is below