Saturday 17th May 2014
Brooklands Museum, Weybridge
A scorching hot Saturday in May saw the third of Brooklands Museum’s annual celebration of the 1940s play out across the vast grounds of this historic racetrack. For those unfamiliar with Brooklands here’s a little potted history: the track opened in 1907 as the world’s first purpose-built venue for motor sport. Famous primarily for its banked oval circuit it also served as one of Britain’s first airfields so the museum is saturated with the history of British motor sport and aviation…in fact it was here that the Vickers Aviation Company built Wellingtons and Hurricanes during WW2, not to mention the development of Barnes Wallis’ ‘bouncing bomb’.
With this much of a connection you would expect The 1940s Relived to be a spectacular event celebrating and highlighting the site’s rich history and really showing off the various exhibits and site specific features to their fullest. Sadly this is not the case; in fact it’s a shame that what the event clearly marks is a way of bringing people to the museum for a visit. Clearly this isn’t a bad thing, but the disconnect means that actually most of the visitors go off exploring the museum and not participating in the actual event itself!
What the event has to offer beside the museum (plus the London Bus Museum and a dozen civilian airliners including Concorde!) is contained in a small area by the old club house and sheds, consisting of a marquee and vintage market and featuring a fashion show, ‘best-dressed’ competition, swing dance lessons, and music and dancing. It’s kind of a mixture of the War & Peace Show and Goodwood Revival, but on a MUCH smaller scale…and with none of the racing or tanks!
For first time visitors this is a great little day out, with plenty to do to occupy you for the whole day. On the upside nearly all the attendees dress up to the nines, and ‘people watching’ swings quickly between drooling over gorgeous original pieces and blind jealousy, but with none of the unpleasant faux-vintage polka dots and petticoats or fake ‘tashery of the Revival. On the downside, anyone visiting who wants to learn about the history of the site requires extensive digging around the exhibits pulling one away from the very stuff that brought him or her to the museum on this particular event.
With a little bit of tweaking and a little more effort bringing the museum itself into the story, this could well be an event to watch out for!
