Guild 2016 AGM visits Brooklands

The Guild’s Annual General Meeting takes place at Brooklands on Tuesday 24 May. Members who wish to attend should inform the Guild secretariat at  no later than Tuesday 26 April.

This is also the closing date for motions to the meeting and nominations for new committee members.

The Guild day begins with registration at 10am prior to the annual meeting at 11am. The meeting will include the presentation of reports by the committee, including the annual accounts, the election of officers and the committee and any motions concerning the operation of the Guild and its activities.

Lunch is being sponsored by classic car insurance specialists Footman James who will be making a short presentation about their work.

The afternoon will feature tours of the current restoration and development work being carried out at Brooklands – details of which were first revealed to members when they visited the site in November 2014.

The £4.9 million project, backed by a Heritage Lottery grant, started in October 2015 and aims to “rediscover” the end of the finishing straight as it was in the 1930s (below).

Since then, thousands of tons of spoil covering the original Brooklands finishing straight has been removed, exposing the remains of the original supporting embankment which will be incorporated into the final landscaping scheme.

The next phase is the building of a new Flight Shed near the Members’ banking, the removal and restoration of the WW2 Bellman hangar and the creation of a new Archive Store for both aviation and motoring-related papers (including the Bill Boddy collection).

Other plans include re-installing the paddock railings and the scoreboard in the paddock.

It is hoped to re-open the finishing straight in June 2017, in time for the 110th anniversary of the opening of the Brooklands Motor Circuit. A formal opening of the new aviation exhibitions will follow shortly afterwards.

Members of the Guild are welcome to visit Brooklands at any time during the development to check on progress – admission is free on presentation of a Guild ID card. More information on the whole project is available from Paul Stewart on 01932 857 381 Ext 249 or paulstewart@brooklandsmuseum.com.