If you have ever been to Goodwood Festival of Speed or Revival, you’ll be familiar with the throaty roar of a dozen or more old engines, the smell of diesel, petrol and burning oil and the thrill of excitement rippling through the crowd as racing cars fly noisily past!
You probably either love it or hate it, with little middle ground, but from a Sussex point of view, we can proudly wave the flag of having a strong motoring heritage which can be traced back to two significant and inaugural events: the first London to Brighton Veteran Car Run (the Emancipation Run) in 1896 and the birth of British Motor Racing in Bexhill in 1902.
The birth of British Motor Racing in Bexhill
Bexhill’s seaside story gathered pace with the railway. The line reached the town in 1846, although its first station was modest and some way from the old village. The transformation into a fashionable resort came later, when the 7th Earl De La Warr began developing his estate in the 1880s. He commissioned a sea wall and laid out De La Warr Parade, creating the foundations for the new seafront. The grand Sackville Hotel, which opened in 1890, helped establish Bexhill’s ambitions as a resort for wealthy visitors.
Bexhill, cars and passing trend
The 7th Earl’s son Gilbert took on responsibility for the estate in the early 1890s and succeeded to the title in 1896 as the 8th Earl. He continued to promote Bexhill, adding attractions including the Kursaal, a seafront entertainment pavilion, and a bicycle boulevard with a chalet where visitors could hire bikes. He organised all sorts of cycling events and tournaments, but it seems that his true ambitions were set on something much faster than that. (As a side note, the Kursaal was demolished in the 1930s).
At the turn of the century, motoring was still in its infancy. The first gasoline-powered car had been invented in 1885 (although there had been combustion engines and various iterations of steam and electric powered vehicles before that). After that, a few cars started to appear on our roads in the 1890s and with the repeal of the “Red Flag Act” (Locomotive Act), the speed limit went up to a heady 14 mph and motor cars were allowed to travel without a person walking ahead with a flag. The first motor races took place in France , with a race from Paris to Rouen in 1894.
Mass production didn’t really take shape until after 1908 so at the turn of the century, cars were still a pretty rare sight on our roads with many people believing they were just a passing trend.
The birth of British Motor Racing in Bexhill
In 1901, the 8th Earl De La Warr was in Nice in France to watch motor races on the Promenade des Anglais. The roar and the thrill clearly inspired him and he persuaded the Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland to stage its Great Whitsuntide Motor Races on the Earl’s private seafront land in Bexhill.
The first race
The first event took place over four days with the main race on Whit Monday, 19 May 1902. The races brought more than 200 entries from Britain and the Continent. Special trains were laid on for spectators and an estimated 30,000 spectators filled the town. The course ran from Galley Hill down to De La Warr Parade, where cars competed in speed trials over a kilometre. Because it crossed the Earl’s private land, the course was not subject to the 14 mph speed limit that applied on public roads.
When the weekend arrived, the town’s hotels were fully booked, throngs of people crowded the route, the bicycle chalet was converted to house the judges and the results, and cars filled the streets! The atmosphere must have been electric. Many people would have never seen a car or only very slow and occasional cars, and suddenly here with these loud and angry beasts hurtling along at speeds of between 50 and 70 mph.
Drivers wore goggles and white coats, and hunkered down in their vehicles to help with speed and there must have been an immense smell of engines and an intense noise, matched only by the roar of the crowd. French driver Léon Serpollet recorded the fastest time that year, averaging about 54 mph in a steam-powered car. His name is now closely associated with the famous “Easter Egg” steam car, celebrated in a tubular sculpture near the Sackville with a replica at Bexhill Museum.
Motor races continued to be held in Bexhill in 1904 – 1906 (with plans for an official circuit) and again from 1922 – 23 and 1925 but these were eventually eclipsed by the opening of Brooklands motor racing circuit in 1907 in Surrey. In the 1930s, Concours d’Elegance event was held at the De La Warr Pavilion representing the swansong of the town’s motoring heyday.
And the rest isn’t entirely history
In 1994, after a campaign by local researcher Brian Hazell, the RAC recognised the town as the birthplace of British motor racing. Granite stones mark the start and finish of the 1902 course, and the tubular sculpture and museum displays offer further reminders of the event. The exhibition in what was the Sackville Hotel (and is now a restaurant and residential flats) has some fantastic photographs and information and helps give you a taste about what that first motor race must have been like.
You can also follow the five-stop Motoring Heritage Trail from Galley Hill towards Cooden Beach. Along the way, look out for the Serpollet sculpture, the former site of the Kursaal by the Sailing Club, and the motoring collection at Bexhill Museum. The final board is at The Relais Cooden Beach Hotel. It is a slightly unexpected stop, but the hotel once displayed historic photographs of Bexhill’s races; those photographs have since moved to the museum but the hotel was also an important property for the De La Warr family.
Between 1990 to 2003, the Bexhill 100 Festival of Motoring once more ignited the town in a roar and excitement of racing and one of the region’s most significant motoring events. The final Bexhill 100 took place in 2002 but the Bexhill 100 Classic and Custom Car Show held its first meet on 2005 and is now held in August each year, seeing some 500 vehicles on show. So of you love cars and motoring, Bexhill is a great place to go for a little motoring history.
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