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Awards and Loans

The Trust offers financial assistance to individuals or groups to carry through restoration or improvement projects to completion. The Trust also invites enquiries about sponsoring one or more Awards.

Allan Winn

 Our Preservationist of the Year is by professional training an aeronautical engineer and a journalist.  He has edited and published magazines such as Flight International and Commercial Motor. When he left the publishing world he took up a full time position at Brooklands Museum as Director and CEO, having already served for 12 years as volunteer chairman of the Friends of Brooklands, the predecessor to Brooklands Members Trust. 

To say that the museum has been transformed during his 15 years as Director is an enormous understatement.  When he took over it was a somewhat forlorn place, and the finances were in a condition to match many of the facilities.  Now with 6000 Brooklands Trust Members paying an annual subscription and with large public events on as many 30 weekends a year bringing in additional income, the finances look very much healthier.

One of his first tasks was to persuade British Airways that Brooklands really deserved one of their Concordes when the plane went out of service - after all, about a third of every Concorde was built here.  The Concorde experience remains a very popular, and profitable, feature, and was responsible for a 40% increase in visitor numbers when it arrived in 2006.  The Clubhouse has been refurbished, the bar services and the catering are very good indeed, and usage of all facilities on the site is at an all time high.  The last filed accounts show annual visitor numbers at 186,000.

The Museum functions via its workforce of 60 paid staff and over 800 volunteers, and as we know, volunteers take managing just as much as paid staff – some might say more.  The 4D cinema is a great innovation, and the refurbished Stratosphere Chamber is a must see.  The Outreach programme reaches places that other outreach programmes do not reach, and the number of school visits to Brooklands is astonishing. There is a Mini-aces club for the under fives, and there is a Saturday Science Club as well as training for Brooklands and other museums’ people in aircraft preservation.20190515161854282

The crowning glory of our Preservationist of the Year’s time here at Brooklands however must be the moving of the Bellman Hangar which was built on the finishing straight in 1940 to its present position and its re-opening as the Aircraft Factory exhibition alongside the new Flight Shed.  This was made possible by a grant of almost £9m from HLF, and has not only created a wonderful educational display but has opened up a huge area of the finishing straight and transformed the feel of the site.  The HLF money made it possible but it was the vision of our Preservationist of the Year that started the process off and saw it through.  He shares a characteristic with all our previous recipients of this award - he simply does not have the sense to see when something cannot be done.

 

 

 

The National Transport Trust makes loans to groups, associations and individuals at advantageous rates for the restoration of artefacts - whether mobile or part of the infrastructure.  Applications must be supported by a simple business plan which demonstrates the financial viability of the project. A sample business plan is available on request from the Treasurer.

 

The Trust does occasionaly make Awards for schemes which further the preservation movement. Again if you wish further information please contact the Treasurer.

 

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