One of the truly remarkable things about my Spirit Of Brooklands project, was the realisation that nature is incredibly resilient, and, when left to its own devices, could prosper after apparent destruction. You would think that the laying of 3 miles of 6 inch concrete, would bring an end to the chance of anything growing there, but as this photo shows, nature can break through, and even thrive.
As we enter 2023, I realised that it was 15 years ago that I took the first photo that formed the basis of my Spirit Of Brooklands project.
At the time, I had just bought a new camera which was meant to be good at long exposures, and I wanted to test it out. The darkest place I could think of was a banked section of the former Brooklands Motor Racing Circuit, where there was no artificial lighting, so would be pitch black after dark.
Brooklands Museum has its own TV show called Secrets Of The Transport Museum which is on Yesterday channel and is well worth a watch (it’s on catch up at UK Play TV too). Although my series of photographs, The Spirit Of Brooklands mainly focussed on its history as a motor racing circuit, Brooklands also played a significant part in the aircraft industry being a just in time manufacturing centre for aeroplanes during World War Two.
The hangar featured in this photo is a Bellman Hangar and was designed to be a temporary fixture when it was first located on the Finishing Straight of the racing circuit, but is now a grade II listed building. I shot this just before it was moved to another area of the site to become part of the aircraft factory.
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