SEVENTY YEARS ON
There’s a significant anniversary for Prescott in August 2007. One to be celebrated and acknowledged in the long and distinguished histories of the sport of hill climbing, the Vintage Sports Car Club and the Bugatti Owners’ Club.
For it was on Thursday August 5th 1937 that Sam Clutton of the VSCC wrote to Eric Giles of the BOC and told him of the estate near Cheltenham that had the makings of an excellent hill climb course.
However, as with all good stories, it is best to begin at the beginning. It was distinguished writer and Vintage enthusiast Tom Rolt who first set the wheels turning. Tom lived at Stanley Pontlarge and the owners of Prescott in the early 1930s were friends of his family, as he later recalled,“To motor up their drive in my GN was an exciting exercise. Such exercises blissfully - and fortunately always correctly - assuming that the owners would not be descending the hill at the same time, for from Orchard to the exit from the Esses the drive was lined by dense and impenetrable undergrowth.”
At that time, apart from Shelsley, there was a dire shortage of interesting sprint and hill climb venues and Tom realised what an improvement Prescott would be over the courses at Aston Clinton, Bramshill and Littlestone which the VSCC were then compelled to use for lack of anything better. Then in 1936 the Prescott estate was sold and the new owners apparently proposed to cut down all the timber, Tom Rolt again,
“It seemed to be a case of now or never…….I led a small procession of drivers and vehicles to Prescott, including Sam Clutton, Tim Carson and Forrest Lycett. Although their verdict was favourable, they came to the sad conclusion that the Club (VSCC) could not possibly afford to buy the estate. It was Sam Clutton who had the happy notion of divulging the whereabouts of the hill to Eric Giles of the BOC in return for the concession that the VSCC might have the use of the hill for one meeting a year.”
The BOC had run an annual hill climb at Chalfont St. Giles from 1931 to 1935, plus a one-off event at Joel Park in Middlesex. The Club used the race course road at Lewes and in 1936 plans to take over the Dancer’s End hill near Tring were scuppered by opposition from a local landowner. The Club had realised that their only hope of getting a permanent venue was to buy a suitable estate and the search was on - and that is where we came in. Eric Giles takes up the story.
“We were thrilled and acted quickly. All the members of the (BOC) Council were summoned and we went down there post-haste. We immediately realised the tremendous opportunity we had. We held a Council meeting on the spot, sitting on the lawn up by the house, and decided there and then to acquire the place whatever happened. My brother (Col. Godfrey Giles) and I were in a position to buy the place and this was done, and a lease granted to the Club at a nominal rent. We were only just in time because the previous owner was already felling all the lovely trees on the estate and was even contemplating pulling down the house.”
Money was raised from Club members to transform the rough and slippery track into a hill climb course. The work on the road started in December 1937, and a return road was mapped out and constructed. Paddock and car parking were organised, pathways for spectators built, and much more. There were meetings with the RAC to discuss public safety and with Cheltenham Council and local residents to explain the project. Eric Giles does not mention the number of trips that he made to Gloucestershire to check progress, but he surely covered many, many miles. The intention was that everything would be ready for April 10th when the Club’s Opening Rally would visit the hill and, sure enough, it was completed on time.