On Saturday 10th August 1974, the roar of racing cars was heard for the last time on the Great Auclum estate in Burghfield Common, near Reading.  Exactly fifty years ago this year 

Between 1947 and 1974 the Great Auclum speed trials and hill climbs were organised by The Hants & Berks Motor Club. Early H&BMC members were drawn from the motoring trade and business community from the Reading area and from the RAE at Farnborough.   This blend of talents produced a unique club which was technologically advanced and yet run on a sound business practice.   The club were frequently praised for its efficient organisation of events and, consequently, the club and its members were held in very high regard in motoring circles.

From 1959 the venue hosted an annual round of the RAC British Hill Climb Championship – a status that was retained until racing ceased at Great Auclum.

The Great Auclum estate was owned by Neil Gardiner – a director of Huntley & Palmer Biscuits in Reading.  Gardiner first allowed motor racing on his front drive in 1938.  Gardiner was a motoring enthusiast who competed at Brooklands circuit in Surrey, indeed he modelled his driveway on the banked corners of Brooklands with each corner being steeply banked.

Aside from being a major sporting event in the area, Great Auclum was a social occasion where locals would meet up and boggle at the courage of the drivers and the variety of racing machinery.  Several locals competed regularly at the hillclimb including Major Charles Lambton and his nephew Sir Nicholas Williamson from Mortimer, and Dr Roger Willoughby from Sulhampstead – all were members of the H&B MC.

The H&B MC has always been a hotbed of innovation and Great Auclum utilised the skills of several members to build reliable, accurate equipment to record timing and communication. Philip Bateman designed and built a timekeeping system that survived the rigours of start and finish line wear and tear use.  Whilst Great Auclum competitor and H&B MC member Patsy Burt designed the Burt Strut that is now mandatory in speed events – the strut breaks the timing beam at the start and end of a run.

Many famous racing drivers and constructors appeared at the tree-lined hill including Stirling Moss, Roy Salvadori, Colin Chapman and John Cooper to name just four.  Motorsport journalists Bill Boddy and Denis Jenkinson were regularly in attendance – with or without notebook and pencil! Two pre-war events were held in 1938 and 1939 which were predominately sportscar oriented.  After the war the Hants & Berks MC organised its first hillclimb at Great Auclum in 1947. 

The final event saw Roy Lane set the fastest time of the day in his mighty McRae Formula 5000 car. No one knew it at the time, but that was the final timed run at Great Auclum.

Neil Gardiner had died in 1973 and the family eventually sold Great Auclum house to meet extensive death duties. Negotiations between the Hants & Berks and the family continued over the winter about staging an event in 1975, but it was not to be.