Day 48 6/8/19 Brooklands and Hampton Court.

Day 48 6/8/19 Brooklands and Hampton Court.

We went our separate ways today, Jan took Maritta to Hampton Court and Mike took me to Brooklands in the 4.3l  Alvis. So the report will be in two parts.

Part 1 Hampton Court.

While Dale and Mike went off playing cars, Jan and I went to Hampton Court - famous palace of King Henry VIII.  A very grand "home" for the Tudor family followed by the Hanover's.  Jan and I concentrated on the house this visit.  Will have to come back to see the gardens. 

Main Entrance

Fabulous ornate facade

There are "pockets " of alleyways given the constant additions to the buildings.

Outside the kitchen area a cart typically used to bring in supplies.

Ornate light fixtures which have originally held candles

Main dining room is full of tapestries. The intricate wooden ceilings.

The tapestries took 1 women 1 year to complete 1 square meter.  The colors are remarkable given their age. 

Beautiful stain glass windows in the chapel.

King Henry VIII's portrait in the Portrait Gallery.   It was supposed to reflect a regal, strong and virile man.  Its size is quite deliberately overpowering. 

A later addition was the Georgian Wing.  Beautiful gardens and court yards surround the palace.

Part 2 Brooklands Museum.

Mike took me to The Brooklands Museum in his 4.3L Alvis. I had been to the museum several years ago but a huge amount of work has been done since then including rebuilding and moving one of the original hangers and building a new one. These are filled with historic Airplanes or replicas, built and repaired by the Museum volunteers.

There is also a large display of historic cars, some of which competed at the race circuit. This is a moving display as a number of the cars are still used regularly at historic race meetings.

The one disappointing thing is that there is still a display  of Alvis information on the walls in one corner (left over from International Alvis Day a number of years ago) but the Alvis FWD is in another area where it can’t be easily seen.

The track itself can never be repaired as a lot of it has been built on, but a section of the banking and the test hill can still be used for special events. A number of replica cars have been built to take children, including big kids (adults), up the test hill.

The London Bus Museum is also on the site but we didn’t get time to visit that.