HISTORIC TITLE HILL CLIMB TITLE
Take a drive up the public road towards St Leonards, near the Buckinghamshire village of Aston Clinton, and you will be following the wheel tracks of history – because this narrow country lane running through woodland and open fields was once the site of one of the most famous motorsport venues in the country.
At the turn of the 20th Century, less than 20 years after Karl Benz developed the first practical motor car, motor racing was still in its infancy. The first true speed-based race in the UK, the Bexhill Speed Trials, had taken place in 1902, and in the subsequent years the concept of driving at speed, for fun, had started to take hold.
This led to the development of Hill Climbs, but as very few private venues existed initially, they were run on sections of public road, with local authorities turning a blind eye due to the benefits to the local economy. So, in September 1904, the early protagonists in this fledgling sport, and their magnificent cars, gathered at the bottom of Aston Hill.
Aston Hill Climb, organised by the Hertfordshire Automobile Club( HAC), was among the earliest competitive Hill Climbs in the UK. It ran through grounds owned by the famous Rothschild family, following a three-quarter-mile course from near the junction of the B4009 up to the summit just past Aston Hill Lodge, a property that still exists today.
The course varied slightly in length, depending on the event and year, and the surface was largely chalk. It rose steeply – with a maximum gradient of 12.5 % – up to a right-hand bend before levelling along a short straight then rising again through a series of fast left-hand bends and short straights leading to the finish.
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Revolution- April 2025
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