From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian
BROOKLANDS' IRISH BUILDERS: In the pantheon of motor sport, Hugh Fortescue Locke-King has a special place. For it was the foresight and determination of this wealthy Surrey landowner which created the most famous of early motor racing tracks, the legendary Brooklands circuit.
And what a track it was: 100 feet wide and 2 miles 1,350 yards long at the 50-foot mark. Including the finishing straight, its total length was 3¼ miles, of which 2 miles were level. The longer of its two great bankings, the Byfleet Banking, was 21 feet 10 inches high, towering above nearby cottages, while the second banking, the Member's Banking, was even higher at 28 feet 8 inches tall. Seating was provided for 5,000 and a further 30,000 could be accommodated in tiers of seats down its vast hill, while standing-room for a quarter of a million more was also available.
Safety for this vast audience was provided by two rows of railings 15 feet apart and marshals' posts - called "sentry posts" when the track was opened - were at 300-yard intervals around the entire track.
When it was opened on July 6th 1907 nothing remotely like it existed anywhere in the world. Not surprisingly, the redoubtable SF Edge stole the opening day's thunder by setting a remarkable record on Brooklands seven days earlier on June 28th and 29th - he travelled 1,581 miles in a Napier in 24 hours, at an average 65.9 mph - this record for the greatest distance travelled in a day stood for 17 years.
Yet, while plaudits abounded for Locke-King, the vast army of mainly Irish labourers who brought this vast construction into being were quietly forgotten by history. At the height of construction, as many as 2,000 men toiled in very difficult circumstances and living in appalling conditions.
Work had begun at the start of October 1906 when some 300 men cleared trees from a two- mile track through the area known as Brooklands on the vast Locke-King estate at Weybridge. By December over 600 were employed, and a dozen steam excavators were at work.
Work continued around the clock. At first men lived in makeshift huts of corrugated iron and fir branches. A sanitary inspector brought work to a stop by condemning these living quarters and, as a result, a large wooden building was built to house all workers in one vast, and, one would imagine, stuffy, room.
Despite such conditions, work advanced rapidly. The track's design had been completed by a Colonel Holden and a railway engineer named Donaldson supervised its construction. Several difficult engineering feats were achieved - especially noteable was the spanning of the widest part of the River Wey where the Member's Banking emerged from behind a natural hill. A 5½- inch thick section of banked concrete - the world's first ferro-concrete structure - was constructed on seven rows of piles (one of which was into the river bed) to carry nearly 180 feet of banking.
Elsewhere, the river was diverted, 30 acres of woodland felled and 350,000 cubic yards of earth excavated. By the spring of 1907, 80 truck loads of gravel and cement were arriving daily, as the laying of the track surface began.
Today, the Brooklands Society operates a fine museum which is well worth a visit on what remains of this great track. But, if you should be lucky enough to visit, spare a thought for the 2,000 Irish navvies, who, working under appalling conditions, made it possible for Locke-King to realise his dream of building the world's first purpose-built motor racing circuit.