Collection: Brooklands Museum

Collection-level records:

• Collection overview (Cornucopia)

  Transport

  This extensive collection covers themes of social history, science and industry in addition to transport. The site itself is of historical importance and original buildings relating to Brooklands’ motor racing or aviation history, such as the 1907 BARC Clubhouse, the original workshops and tuning sheds, petrol pagodas, the 1911 Flight Ticket Office and any bridges spanning the Track are considered an important part of the collection. Site features include items that have either survived on the Museum site alongside the buildings or returned from elsewhere, e.g. Original track gates, timing equipment, petrol pumps and a programme-seller’s kiosk. The aim is to restore all surviving site features in-situ or, where necessary, to recreate them with identical or replica examples. Motor Vehicles fall into five categories: Racing cars such as John Cobb’s 1933 Napier Railton, designed, built and raced at Brooklands and the perpetual holder of the Brooklands Outer Circuit Lap Record (Cat A), the Duesenberg racing car that spent most of its racing life at Brooklands (Cat A), the 1923 Halford Special that competed in the 1926 British Grand Prix at Brooklands (Cat A) and racing cars of the Brooklands era such as a 1935 MP PA that is not known to have raced at Brooklands (Cat B). Racing cars that demonstrate the development of racing car technology and engineering to the present day, such as the locally-built Formula 1 McLaren. This subject area is the most relevant to Brooklands and the Museum seeks to expand its collection of Brooklands racing cars as space and other resources (i.e. funds) permit. Sports Cars- Many sports cars competed at Brooklands in trials and driving tests – the Alvis Speed Twenty and Morgan 3-wheeler would be such examples but are Category B as they are not known to have competed at Brooklands. There are only six such cars on display and it is not intended to expand on this subject. Veteran and Vintage Cars -A few examples of the first ‘Horseless Cerritos’ demonstrate the early experimental development of the motor car before the availability of the Brooklands Track to the motor industry for testing purposes. This collecting area is currently limited to four cars: one, the 1910 AC Sociable (Cat.B) represents a local industry, AC Cars that used the Track to race and develop the marque. The Allen Runabout (Cat.B) is a fine example of a ‘Horseless Carriage’, particularly useful for schools’ visits. A 1904 Siddeley two-seater (Cat.A), however, was owned by Hugh & Ethel Locke King who built the Brooklands Track, and is a key exhibit in the ‘Building of Brooklands’ display. Family Saloon Cars – Another limited area containing only four vehicles. These, such as the 1928 Vauxhall Saloon are Category B and represent the social aspects of Brooklands on Race days. It is not intended to seek to increase this subject area. Airfield Vehicles and Miscellaneous Motor Vehicles – Those that serviced Brooklands-related aircraft, the Weybridge site or the Brooklands race track. The Museum currently has in its collection a 1938 Vickers-Armstrongs Supermarine Merryweather fire engine (Cat. B) and has displayed on loan a Crossley Condor recovery vehicle (Cat.B) and a 1949 Vickers-Armstrongs David Brown aircraft tractor (ex Brooklands – Cat A). Aircraft The priority collecting area for aircraft is examples of those machines that were built at Brooklands such as the VickersWellington bomber ‘R’ for ‘Robert’ (Cat A), civil airliners such as the Vickers VC10 (Cat A) or examples that flew at Brooklands in a civil or military training context such as the Tiger Moth and Avro 504K. Aircraft Components and Accessories Components including aero-engines, propellers and radios are collected and displayed where they are relevant to aircraft already on display or being sought by the Museum. Accessories will be collected where they enhance the interpretation of displays. Motor Cycles Motorcycles are collected to represent the racing motorcyclists and machines that raced at the Track. There are 17 in the Collection. The Museum is keen to add examples of racing bikes such as the Grindlay Peerless (Cat A), currently on display, which achieved a gold star on the Track in the 1930’s. The Museum owns a 1922 Zenith (Cat B) and the 1921 ABC Sopwith (Cat B) which, while not strictly racing bikes, were both locally built and the marques were heavily associated with Brooklands through competition and testing. A few other motorbikes of the pre-war years are displayed in connection with the social aspects of Brooklands. These include a 1927 Sunbeam (Cat. B) which is exhibited in the ‘Day at the Races’ section of the Brooklands Racing display. Cycles Cycle racing took place on the Brooklands Track throughout the working life of the Track 1907-1939. The remaining parts of the Track were also used in the 1960’s and ’70s as a cycle racing venue. The last official cycle race took place in 1993. The Museum seeks to acquire racing bicycles such as the 1937 Higgins (Cat A), believed to have raced at Brooklands, and the 1901 BSA Path Racer (Cat B), but there is also a representative collection of road cycles of the type that Brooklands’ employees and race-goers would have ridden. Cycles were also used around the aircraft factory at Brooklands for deliveries and other services and three examples (Cat.A) were saved from the British Aerospace factory. The Cyclist Touring Club (Cat B-C) collection is also on loan to the Museum. The collection ranges from the 1880’s to the 1950’s and is of particular benefit to school groups and for demonstration purposes. The Nash collection of bicycles and tricycles (Cat A) is of particular importance to Brooklands as it was part of the ‘International Horseless Carriage Corporation’ established by R.G.J Nash at Brooklands in the 1930’s.

  Archives

  The museum holds a collection of over 50,000 archives.

  Photographic

  The museum holds a collection of over 20,000 photographs.

  Source: Cornucopia

  Date: Not known, but before 2015

  Licence: CC BY-NC