18 Facts About Brooklands

Brooklands Mountain Circuit was a small section of the track giving a lap 1.

Brooklands closed to motor racing during World War I, was requisitioned by the War Office and continued its pre-war role as a flying training centre although it was now under military control.

Brooklands soon became a major location for the construction, testing and supply of military aeroplanes.

In 1908 Alliott Verdon-Roe was based at Brooklands and carried out the first taxiing and towed flight trials of a British full-size powered aircraft by a British pilot.

On Friday, 29 October 1909 the first official powered flight at Brooklands was made by Frenchman Louis Paulhan and his Farman biplane: this special event attracted 20,000 people and was the first public flying display at Brooklands.

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Bleriot, Martinsyde and Vickers later produced military aeroplanes at Brooklands which became Britain's largest aircraft manufacturing centre by 1918.

Vickers Aviation Ltd set up a factory in 1915, and Brooklands soon became a major centre for the construction, testing and supply of military aeroplanes.

Brooklands operated the resident Brooklands School of Flying which was registered as a limited company in 1931 with Duncan Davis and Ted Jones as Directors, as well as those at Lympne, Shoreham and Sywell Aerodromes in the later 1930s.

Brooklands Aviation won a War Department contract for pilot training for the Royal Air Force.

On 21 September 1940, Lt John MacMillan Stevenson Patton of the Royal Canadian Engineers risked his life when he and five others manhandled an unexploded German bomb away from the Hawker aircraft factory at Brooklands and rolled it into an existing bomb crater where it later exploded harmlessly - his bravery was recognised by the award of the George Cross.

In November 2009, Brooklands was featured in an episode of a BBC TV series James May's Toy Stories.

The Museum project began after a highly successful temporary exhibition about Brooklands was staged in 1977 by Elmbridge Museum in Weybridge and, with support from British Aerospace, Elmbridge Borough Council, Gallaher Ltd and many dedicated individuals, this led to the selection of a 30-acre heritage site in the northeast corner of Brooklands, by the old Paddock and Finishing Straight.

Brooklands made a notable TV appearance when it featured in the 1990 'The Disappearance of Mr Davenheim' episode of Agatha Christie's Poirot, when Hercule Poirot investigates a crime committed involving a racing driver.

The banking of Brooklands was used as a 'road location' in an episode of The Bill where the CID foiled an armed robbery and resulted in a 'shoot out'.

On 1 November 2015, Brooklands was featured in an episode of the British series Downton Abbey, although the scenes were actually filmed at the Goodwood Circuit.

In early 2004 the central area of Brooklands including the hard runway and parts of the remaining circuit were sold to DaimlerChrysler UK Retail and Mercedes-Benz World opened to the public on 29 October 2006.

The retirement of these two VC10s ended a 100-year period of Brooklands-built aeroplanes operated by the British armed forces.

The first of these is the 'Brooklands Memorial' built by Vickers-Armstrongs to mark the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Motor Course and was unveiled by Lord Brabazon of Tara in July 1957.