was to borrow them back. The
social centre of the place was a shed in the middle of the front row,
which was let by Major Lindsay Lloyd as a restaurant, and was called
'The Blue Bird'. This restaurant was run by the wife of one of the
community; it united in itself all the utilities of a public-house, a
club, a parliament, and a town-hall. Living as they did for ends of
their own and apart from the great world, the brotherhood naturally took
pride in themselves as a chosen people, dedicated to high purposes, and
they scorned the Philistines who came in crowds to see the motor racing.
On race days the Philistines were permitted, for reasons connected with
the balance sheet, to have tea at 'The Blue Bird'; some of them would
wander over the aerodrome, and even into the sheds, to ask the sort of
question that is often asked by those who will not undertake the
liabilities but think it graceful to assume the airs of a patron.

After a few years, when aeroplane construction and design settled down
into a regular industry, the glory of this primitive Arcadian community
passed away, and its members were scattered far and wide. Brooklands
became a place of business; in one row of sheds the Bristol Company, in
another Messrs. Vickers, established schools where many distinguished
pilots who served their country in the war learned to make their first
flights. Before the war broke out the British branch of the Bleriot
Company had also taken a number of sheds, and had transformed them into
a regular aircraft factory; the Martin and Handasyde firm had adapted
three or four sheds, and were building a couple of monoplanes for a
transatlantic attempt by that brilliant flyer, the late Mr. Gustav
Hamel. In June of 1914 he was drowned in flying the English Channel, and
the firm suffered a severe set-back. Lastly, when the war came, the
Brooklands aerodrome, with all its flyable machines, was taken over by
the military authorities, and the days of ease and innocence were ended.
A large Vickers factory was built, and turned out many machines for the
Flying Corps; the Bleriot and the Martinsyde firms also continued their
activities for a couple of years, and then moved, the one to Addlestone,
the other to Woking. During the war Brooklands was used as a training
station, a wireless experimental depot, and an acceptance park by the
Royal Flying Corps, which permitted the use of it, for experimental
flying, to the Vickers, Martinsyde, and Bleriot