Brooklands Museum - A Cautionary Tale

[TimD]

I was contacted today by friends in the world of motoring heritage preservation. I received some bitter news about the archive which has up until now been held at the Brooklands Museum.

I shall attempt to put what I want to say into context. For the past few months, librarians at the National Motor Museum have given me the run of the place, copying and scanning for me many precious race reports and programmes for my ongoing Brooklands racing book project.

One of the reasons they have stated for being happy to do this is that in the unlikely event of there being a catastrophe in the Beaulieu archive, they know that at least the information has been disseminated to another source - me!

I have received similar help and encouragement from the Ludvigsen institute, the British Library newspaper collection, and many private individuals, all keen to support an impecunious enthusiast in his ambition. I even got encouragement from Bill Boddy, whose own literary masterpiece might be perceived as my target!

For two years now, I have been engaged in an effort to get the same sort of access to the archives at Brooklands, which would naturally be of great interest for my project. I have been declined at every turn.

The news I heard today was this - following the disastrous floods of November 8th, it has now been conceded that a full quarter of the Brooklands archive has been lost to the floodwater. Because there was a dedicated and tiny team of helpers on hand, they were able to save 50% of the archive before the River Wey got to it. Another 25% was freeze-dried in the 48 hour conservation window that is available in these situations. But the rest...

...there is material that they haven't been able to quantify that has been lost. As the sorting of the archive was down to that small team, they hadn't even completed cataloguing what they'd got. And now it's gone forever.

So let this be a warning to all. If you are a custodian of historic records - for pity's sake look after them. And to those who are struggling to get access to research those records - keep pressing. Your research might just save valuable source material for future historians.

The fixtures and fittings of the Brooklands clubhouse can be replaced. I would question the priorities of a museum that jacks a couple of McLaren show chassis out of the water, but allows flooding to enter the unique Napier Railton outer circuit racer, but that is a small point. The Napier can be dried out.

And despite everything, when the museum reopens - my source suggests May at the earliest - please give them your support. They are going to need every penny.

[Edited by TimD on 22nd December 2000]

[Carrie]

Having been instructed by Tim to find my way over to the Historic forum and this very topic, I've got to comment on this.

Firstly, before I make any references to the flooding that Brooklands has suffered, let me say something about what Tim has mentioned about not being able to have access to the Brooklands archives.

The national organisation for museums is the Museums Association and at their AGM in 1998 they approved a new definition for museums, it reads as follows:

Museums enable people to explore collections for inspiration, learning and enjoyment. They are institutions that collect, safeguard and make accessible artefacts and specimens, which they hold in trust for society.

Museums make their collections accessible and hold them in trust for society, seems to me that Brooklands is not doing that if they are not making their archives open to bone fide researchers. I'd assume that Brooklands will have its own Mission Statement which I would expect to be something similar to the MA's own definition, therefore I believe that their collections should be open to the public. I'm sure Tim has had enough dealings with places like Beaulieu to know that what the public sees on display in a museum is just a fraction of their collection. On average, what the public sees on display is less than 20% of a museums actual collection. Surely Brooklands cannot justify keeping such a sizeable archive out of the public domain. I wonder how many researchers approach them on an annual basis and what reception other researchers receive. At the museum I'm at we can receive about 150 major collections enquiries in a year and will always answer those or be happy to receive researchers.

Moving onto the news that Brooklands has suffered flooding. I hadn't heard this news and it truly is terrible. I'd be devastated if anything similar was to happen to us! This time last year I thought I might have to evacuate our library and I'm just thankful that I never had to - the idea of finding a temporary home for 3000 to 4000 books AND trying to keep all my documentation in order was one that filled me with dread.

Any museum must dread the day when they have to impliment their disaster / emergency plan and thankfully it is something which very few ever have to deal with. I would presume that Brooklands had a disaster plan in place to deal with this sort of situation and they have now had the opportunity to see how effective that plan was

Tim, as I said at Gaydon, I didn't know if Brooklands was MGC (Museum and Galleries Commission now Reource) Registered. In fact, they are as well as being an MA institutional member, so that is more reassurring about their professionalism. At least they've got access to some good conservation facilities for a percentage of the collection.

...there is material that they haven't been able to quantify that has been lost. As the sorting of the archive was down to that small team, they hadn't even completed cataloguing what they'd got. And now it's gone forever.

I've got to come to Brooklands' defence here, you're making it sound like they're the only museum with a documentation backlog. I'd ask you to name me a museum in this country which doesn't have a documentation backlog - there probably are some now who've cleared their backlog, but probably only through major lottery funded projects. Many independent museums (and this may have been the case with Brooklands, I'll try to find out) were founded by groups of enthusiastic volunteers. Lets found a museum, there's a nice idea, but this often meant that in their early days they did not meet good museum practice. While the museum might have developed and become more professional, they are still left with the legacy of their own past and that is not something that can be overcome in a day.

I really do hope things aren't as bad as you make out and that the Brooklands staff and volunteers can make the best of it and salvage whatever possible. I'll bet I can imagine what the Brooklands volunteers are like - a bunch of people obsessed with something they love and at times no doubt so enthusiastic that they drive the staff to despair I think right now they'll need a lot of that enthusiasm!

[Carrie]

You shouldn't have got me started on museums, I can witter on about them all day
One thing I did mean to ask was how far is the museum from the actual river? Have they had any instances of flooding before?

For those interested, here is the press release from the Brooklands website along with a few photos:

The birthplace of British motorsport and aviation had yet another chance to pull together in the face of adversity yesterday when the River Wey burst its banks and submerged part of the famous Brooklands Museum site.

In less than a minute, more than 2 feet of muddy water had swept through the historic 1907 Clubhouse, the Campbell and ERA sheds and covered the floor of the new ‘Grand Prix Exhibition at Brooklands’, ironically due to be opened by HRH Prince Michael of Kent at a gala dinner that evening.

But, in ‘The Spirit of Brooklands’, museum staff and volunteers had been working day and night for several days before to protect and redistribute the treasures of the Museum, including the unique Napier-Railton car built for John Cobb and which broke 47 world records in it’s time and many other racing cars and motorcycles from the 20’s and 30’s.

“We could see the river rising so we did the sensible thing and moved everything we could out of harms way” said Director Morag Barton. “But even then it was heartbreaking to see so many years of painstaking interior restoration of the buildings disappear under the water. Most things are covered by our insurance but there’s still a lot we need to repair and replace and we don’t know where the money is going to come from. The level is down today but we’re not out of danger yet.”

One of the heroes of the flood was 84 year old Norman “Spud” Boorer who’s been associated with Brooklands since he started as an apprentice here in 1931 and who served as Barnes Wallis’s Executive Assistant during WW2. As soon as it got light enough to see, he was here in his rubber boots helping the team to deal with the crisis. “I was here at Brooklands working on Wellingtons during the War and I’m back today working in them ! “ quipped Spud

It looks like weeks and weeks of work before everything is back to normal but everyone will work as hard as they can for as long as they need to until Brooklands can open to the public again.

[TimD]

I should perhaps clarify what I meant about the documentation backlog!

Far be it from me to castigate the efforts of a small, dedicated team of archivists. If the quntity of records exceeds the number of man-hours available, with the best will in the world, cataloguing is an endless task.

Heck, even my OWN library isn't properly catalogued - it got close in about 1992, but that's another 8 years of acquisitions on top of that!

And even in the best circles, there is a considerable cataloguing shortfall, such as in the Karl Ludvigsen archive, the Rivers Fletcher papers, the British Museum newspaper library, and the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu, all of which I have spent time poring over, and all of which have found gems for me that they didn't even know they had themselves.


Incidentally, I am now hearing snippits of this story from more sources, and Aeroplane Monthly has published a news piece about the loss of archive. It suggests that the damaged items were more aeronautical than motoring in their content, but that is no consolation. My own research may not be as badly hindered as I first thought, but the aviation archive is just as valuable, and just as irreplacable.

Carrie, you mentioned the proximity of the river to the museum. It's a matter of seventy to a hundred yards at most from the Tuning Sheds. And a big flood is not an unknown occurrence, either. The last nasty one was in about 1969, I think, but there are records of floods going back to before the opening of the circuit back in 1907.

Thinks: isn't it fortunate we never organised a 10-tenths Christmas gathering in the Brooklands function rooms, as was mooted at one time.

[Craig]

As some of you know, I live within walking distance of Brooklands. I find it interesting that all reports i've heard about the flooding until now - local papers, and otherwise - have reported that there was no loss of archive material, only damage to buildings, etc...

Is there some kind of cover up here ? Maybe they don't want bad publicity cos they were unprepared or something ?

[Craig]

Oh, and as for the 10 Tenths bash at the place, I attended a function there once - and they'd have not had us in a million years!

[Peter Mallett]

Hmm,

It would be a terrible shame to lose the information at this site. However, there wouldn't be a site unless the developers had listened to the few enthusiasts and given over (reluctantly) some land and the buildings. I've always thought the organisers a little "clicky" which backs up Craig's point about a gathering. Its still the right crowd and no crowding. Mainly because the "right crowd" don't want to allow the average enthusiasts (whether cars or aircraft) through the door. They have to of course because it pays the bills.

If they really pushed the place to the general public and not just the clubs and officianados, they'd have an awful lot more cash to spend on the protection of what is an extremely important part of this country's heritage.

Gripe over. I hope they get things sorted very soon.

Anyway, do you think they'll have a classic car gathering on New Year's day as was muted a while back?