Brooklands through the Ages

Insights through to modern times about the Brooklands area covering its origins, history,

people and other interesting facts.

Steve McCarthy

www.walton-weybridgehistory.org.uk

• The Early History of Brooklands, Weybridge, by M. E. Blackman.1987 - Monograph 41

• The Locke Kings of Brooklands, Weybridge, by J.S.L.Pulford. 1996 - Publication 31

What & Where is Brooklands?

• Retail Park - M&S and Tesco, etc

• Brooklands old race track

• Brooklands Museum and Mercedes Benz World

• Brooklands College

But what was Brooklands before the motor track was built in 1907?

What & Where was Brooklands in 1815?

• Maybe answers like......

– ‘Go down the lane where the Heath begins and you’ll find the farm....’

– The Duke of York knocked down the fancy house a few years ago....

Conclusion: ‘Brooklands’ has moved south...

Brooklands

• Historical area – East of River Wey

– West of Heath Road & Byfleet Road (now Brooklands Road)

• Modern area – After 1933

– Includes motor track

River Wey

Brooklands College

Early settlement

Weybridge Today

The largest part of Brooklands track became part of Weybridge in 1933

1930 OS Map

River Wey

Brooklands – the name ‘theories’

1. View of first Curator of Elmbridge Museum - Dr. Eric Gardner – Bishop Odo of Bayeux and Caen, died 1097

– Half brother of William the Conqueror, made Earl of Kent

– Largest land holder in England after William, including Brooklands

– Probably the commissioner of the Bayeux Tapestry

– Suggestion that Odo gave Brooklands to his mistress, Eva de Broc

Brooklands – the name ‘theories’

2. Took name from land – ‘broc’ = ‘marshy land’

Broc’s land, Brokeland

Only records for: 1196 Eva del Broc & 1294 William de la Brok

3. ‘Brooklands took its name from Robert del Brok, who, in the 12th century, was Lord of the local Manor’

– however no references found

Archaeological Finds

• 1907 – Building the track

– Bronze Bucket, in British Museum

• 5/6th Cent. B.C, from Eastern Alps

– Roman remains, coins & pottery

• 1964/5 and 1970/1 – Excavations

– Single site covering Iron Age & Medieval periods

Iron Age & Medieval excavation site Discovered by Dr Gardner

• On 50ft contour, highest area near river

• Iron smelting

• 600BC to 100AD

• Ore from St Georges Hill

• Iron Age house plus later Medieval house

• Bronze bucket

1970/1

Excavations

Medieval house – 1150 to 1325

Brooklands Farm/Estate

• 1538 – bought as part of the Oatlands estate by Henry VIII – Crown Estate property to 1804 - leased out in parcels

• Centred on a farmhouse at end of Brooklands Lane • 1650, Parliamentary Survey • c. 1764 - Great Brooklands House constructed on

existing Members Hill site • 1803/4 – Oatlands estate freeholds granted to the

Duke of York - demolished new house soon after

• 1824 – Oatlands estate sold to Edward Ball-Hughes • 1830 – Brooklands Farm bought by Peter King, 7th

Baron of Oxshott • 1861/2 new Brooklands House built

Survey 1650 • Parliamentary

Survey

• ‘Tymber house covered with tyles’ plus barns

• 26 fields or areas

• 268 acres total

George Payne 1729 – 1800

• Leased Brooklands estate • Built a ‘country villa’ in the 1760s

– Commissioned John Crunden, well known architect

• Cousin of Rev. George Austen – Jane Austen’s father

• Barrister • Ambassador to Morocco 1784 • Patentee of the Lion Office in the Tower ( keeper

of the royal menagerie, Tower of London) • Died heavily in debt

Great Brooklands House

Brooklands plan 1803 Original in Brooklands Museum

Sale details after death of George Payne

– 145 acres park like grounds – 150 acres of mainly meadow – Lease until 1834

Survey done for the Duke of York • List of features on the plan • Little Brooklands House

– Garden – Coach House/Stables – Granary – Rick Yard – Dairy – (Semi-moated)

• Great Brooklands House – Farm Yard & Office – Summerhouse – Kitchen garden – Bailiff’s Cottage – Hermitage

OS Map 1816

1804 estate

• Brooklands Farm

• Site of demolished Great Brooklands House

• Farmyard

Modern OS Map

1804 Estate

• Farmhouse

• Great Brooklands House

• Southern edge, the Urban district boundary of Weybridge

• Railway bisected estate in 1838 & 1848

Brooklands Farm – recent past

• Farmhouse – at the end of Brooklands Lane

– a Listed building standing in green belt land

• Late 1990’s - planning applications to knock down house and build on the site - all refused

• Mysterious fire in late 1990’s - remains demolished 2001/2

• Next planning application approved

• Archaeological survey in 2003 on remains of farmhouse – nothing found from 16/17th century, just 18/19th

• 2003 - Swan Hill Homes built the Lockestone estate of 21 large houses with a communal 30 acre private meadowland

Brooklands House & Farm 1930

Farmhouse 1960

Brooklands Farmhouse 1992

The Locke Kings – Origins • The 1st Baron King – related by marriage to the great

philosopher, John Locke

• Peter, 7th Baron King of Ockham, 1776–1833 – major Surrey landowner

– bought Brooklands Farm in 1830 plus Byfleet Park Farm • Possibly Childs Farm as well – Mayfield/March Road area

– elder son William inherited title & many landholdings • married Augusta Ada (daughter of Lord Byron)

• made Viscount Ockham and Earl of Lovelace

• Lord-Lieutenant of Surrey

– 2nd son, Peter John Locke King, 1811-1885 • inherited many landholdings (4600 acres) including Brooklands Farm and

farms in Byfleet

Peter John Locke King

• Used Locke as part of surname

• Moved to Woburn Park (St Georges

College) in 1834 (bought by his mother)

• Married Louisa in 1836, had 9 children

• Liberal MP for East Surrey, 1847-1874

• Bought more landholdings adjacent to his Brooklands estate – Portmore Park Estate; other land in Weybridge; Vanners Farm &

Wintersells Farm, Byfleet; Hollick Farm, Chertsey;

• Built the brand new Brooklands House in 1861/2 – Family occupied until 1936 (Brooklands College from 1948/9)

• Estate on death in 1885 - £500,000 ( £45 million today)

Brooklands House 1930

OS Map 1897

Hollick Farm

Wintersells Farm

District Boundary

The nine children’s lives 1. Hester, 1837-1915 – never married, lived in Weybridge

2. Peter, 1839-40 – died of croup as a baby

3. Peter John Locke, 1840-85 – never lived at Woburn Park, died in Erdington, Birmingham (where there was an asylum)

4. Louisa, 1842-90 – as an adult lived in a residential home

5. (Anna) Clementina, 1846-1931 – never married, lived in Shere with Eleanor, aged 50 went to China as a missionary for 27 years

6. Hugh Fortescue Locke, 1848-1926 – poor health, the only one to marry, had no children, built the race track

7. Eleanor, 1850-1933 – never married, little known about

8. Robert Henry Locke, 1852-55 – died after all the family had scarlet fever

9. Blanche, 1856-63 – died of scarlet fever

Conclusion: tragic family circumstances - how did this affect Hugh’s outlook on life?

Weybridge Cemetery

• Hester

• Robert Henry + Blanche

• Peter John Locke

• Louisa

Parents -Peter & Louisa

Hugh & Ethel Locke King Hugh Locke King • Aged 37 inherited in 1885 - £441,000 including 4600 acres of land • Weak heart, wintered abroad a lot, non driver • Called ‘Nunkey’ or ‘Nunc’ by younger family members – small child

trying to say ‘uncle’? • Spent lots of money, estate progressively sold off • Aged 57 when started building the Brooklands track • Died in 1926 leaving £54,000 + share of track company Ethel Gore-Browne • 16 years younger than Hugh, born 1864, married 1884 • A ‘daughter of the Empire’ – father was a Governor General • Made a Dame for her war efforts running 14 hospitals in Surrey • Interested in cars and speed • Died in 1956 leaving estate of £110,000 including 12 ½ acres

The Young Ethel

From Mena House Hotel From her nephew, Stewart

Hugh & Ethel

In Vienna Hospital work At Brooklands House

Hugh & Ethel’s Graves

Motives for building the track?

Build a race track

No children to inherit.

Leave a legacy?

A new interest & make money

Had suitable land and the

money

Supportive wife who also

likes cars Visit to Coppia Florio.

No English cars

Egged on by rich friends

Itala cars interest

Made him ill & nearly bankrupt !

Itala Cars • Early Italian supercars – like a modern Ferrari...

• Turin based from 1904-1934

• Successful racing cars - 1905 onwards

• This 1908 car lapped Brooklands at 93mph. 12L engine - sold at Goodwood in 2012 for £1.74m

The Lock Kings and Itala

They had three Itala cars in the 1900s

Hugh probably helped Itala setup the UK motor works before the track was started

Went to the Coppa Florio in Italy in Sept 1905 with a driver friend, Henry Pope - director of Itala UK

Ethel had her own Itala – Bambo She drove it leading the procession of cars at the Brooklands opening

Itala Works • Behind a row of houses on

Byfleet Road (now Brooklands Road)

• Land sold before 1906

• Bought by Vickers in 1915

1910

Vickers Factory 1938

Track opening 1907

Bambo

Local opposition

• Dining with the Locke Kings on 13 July 1907, Lady Monkswell found them depressed:

‘They have been building this awful motor track and are so hated by their neighbours, many of whose houses they have simply ruined, that hardly anyone will speak to them’

1907 statistics

Britain 30m people 60,000 cars Weybridge 6000 people 20 cars?

Motor Circuit 1921

Motor Circuit 1921

Entrances 1 - Original 1907

entrance – now Caenshill Road – High Court injunction

to stop its use, 1908

2 - Moved in 1908 to Boxall’s Lodge

3 - Totally new entrance in 1933 – Shell Way (by Spenser Avenue area)

4 – Pedestrian tunnels Now in back gardens of

1 & 3 Locke King Road

5 – Competitors car tunnel

1

2

3

4

5

The Heath 1929

Station

Hand & Spear

Pedestrian Tunnel Slope

• Three tunnels • Bricked up entrances • One led to Member’s enclosure • Two led to public enclosures • Metal railings between

Shell Way - New Entrance 1933

Some students stole the ‘S’ Entrance near today’s Spenser Avenue

Holidaymakers on the Wey - 1936

Flying & Aircraft Manufacture

Hawker Hurricane Vickers Wellington

Aviation

• Birthplace of British aviation from 1909

• Hawkers had ‘sheds’ in Byfleet ‘flying village’ – Built Hurricanes before

and during WW2 till 1942

• Vickers took over the Brooklands site – WW2 – bought it in 1946

– built Wisley airfield 1943 to 1972

• First hard runway built in 1951

Brooklands – c. 1938

BAC site - 1964

British Aerospace - Mid 1980’s

Brooklands Today

Vickers Factory & Sandpits – 1938

Factory air raid shelter - 1940

• For 5000 workers • 17 entrances • Nearly a 1 mile of tunnels

Air Raid Shelter

• David Lloyd car park area

• Closed for about 30 years

• Explored in 1999

Wine Storage – Locke-King Vaults • “The UK's largest surviving World War II air raid

shelter, leased from the Ministry of Defence”

• Converted in 2009

• Holds 268,000 cases