THRIVING

It may have been established over a century ago, but in just ten years this historic site has been transformed. We look at the best of Bicester

Words David Lillywhite

Photography Matt Howell, Bicester Heritage, Charlie B

OPPOSITE Bentleys get a new lease of life at Kingsbury Racing. ABOVE The site’s expansion continues as new units complement RAF Bicester’s original buildings –including two huge C Type hangars.

IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO DESCRIBE exactly why Bicester Heritage is so special – but all of us who’ve been there know it is, don’t we?

Maybe it’s the feeling of escape it gives as you enter the leafy avenues. Maybe it’s the time-warp buildings, cleverly restored to work for modern businesses while retaining both their charm and their listed status – even the toilet block (designated RAF Building 100, or ‘loo’) has been restored to high quality in the correct period service colours.

Or maybe it’s the many different cars, bikes and sometimes ’planes that you’ll see on every visit. Even on a normal working day, you’ll come across sights that you just wouldn’t see anywhere else.

And it’s the people, too, whether part of the Bicester team or tenants or visitors. They’re all so full of enthusiasm and knowledge – and they prove that historic motoring brings together those of all ages, from all walks of life.

How to choose images that sum this up? It’s not actually possible, but here are a few at least from the past decade to remind you of this remarkable place while you’re away.

LEFT Historic avenues and buildings of the former RAF Bicester provide an evocative backdrop. This is the Power House’s early days.

OPPOSITE AND RIGHT The Little Car Company works with elite vehicle marques to create small-scale electric cars. BELOW Aston Martins gather outside the Tanker Sheds during one of the Bicester site’s Scrambles.

Words David Lillywhite

YOU MIGHT BE READING THIS having just wandered through the leafy avenues of Bicester Heritage, admiring the classic cars and bikes, and talking to the thriving specialists. It’s hard to imagine that ten years ago this was a derelict site, in danger of crumbling into oblivion.

Did anyone expect Bicester Heritage to grow as quickly in scale and popularity as it did? Sitting down with CEO Dan Geoghegan ten years after the deal to buy the site for £3.4m was signed, it’s clear that he had the vision from the start.

“I came to look at the site in 2012,” he says. “So I had a nine-month lead-in, where I gave up my job and thought, this is it, this is the opportunity, so let’s get on with it… and 1000 hours later I got the tender into the Ministry of Defence (MoD). The rest is history.

“It was so sensitive within the MoD because it was the last and best untouched pre-war bomber station remaining. In 2008 it was described by Historic England as, of all the Defence Estates, the one most at risk of inappropriate development. I had to write a business plan to show we are good, upstanding members of the human race, we’ve got good intent and we can back this up both professionally and financially.”

And it worked. There are now over 50 companies incorporating around 100 separate enterprises on site –and Bicester Heritage has also become one of the UK’s most popular motoring-event locations.

“We have got people who still want to come, so that’s a very good thing,” says Dan. “Our original core businesses are still here. I think the greatest pleasure really is seeing those companies do well and achieve their goals. It’s been a good ten years – although it has not always been plain sailing.”

He continues: “The idea was to create a cluster of historic car businesses in order to help solve the challenge of knowledge capture and transfer, through education and apprenticeships, to create a cluster where the sum of the parts is greater than their individual components. And so that was all in the business plan, and that is where we are today.

“I remember being interviewed by the local press, and I was standing in the hangar that is now Historit (with hundreds of vehicles in it), saying: ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if in ten years’ time there are 100 enterprises here?’ And that has come to fruition.

“But it’s not just the businesses, it’s the enthusiasts who come here as well. They’re the heroes, because without the enthusiasts you don’t have an industry. And isn’t it brilliant to see the apprenticeships flying out of the door here?

“We started off by saying it’s a business park for classic car companies, because that fit was understandable [to the MoD]. But in our heads, we were always thinking about events and education. The first Scramble was just amazing.

“In those first years, we were saying: ‘Well, you know, historic cars are often perceived to be an exclusive, rich man’s game. Actually, let’s make it inclusive, let’s lower the drawbridge. Let’s make it as welcoming as we possibly can.’

“I think we’ve done that. We’re not finished yet, but when I stand here on a Scramble day, it’s of course fantastic to see the dyed-in-thewool enthusiasts, but it’s also brilliant to provide an environment for the pushchairs and the families. It’s demystified and made accessible something that risked looking like it was drifting, sleepwalking towards becoming very niche.

“I remember saying: ‘If you love it, we’ll love it,’ whether it’s a Fiat Panda or a Ferrari SWB.”

But of course, just as Bicester Heritage events were really taking off, along came Covid. For a relatively young business – and the many enterprises on site – that could have been absolutely disastrous.

“From a landlord’s point of view,

I thought: ‘Crikey, what’s going to happen?’” says Dan. “Lockdown was really interesting, because on one side you’re obviously concerned for the –at that time – 40 businesses here. But there was also a sense of community and hopefully mutual respect of the people who are here with us. Everybody was very supportive. The income stream was uninterrupted other than events, which was really important to keep the ship sailing. We’re very grateful for that.

“After a while we were able to have outdoor events, but what also came out of it was an opportunity to really support the Covid effort; the local doctors all got together, and they used our buildings to administer the jabs. By the end of it all, we’d had 30,000 people through.”

This adaptability has been crucial, and it’s also resulted in the creation of an area of new buildings, alongside the restored and converted historic buildings of the Bicester Heritage site, as Dan explains.

“The danger of having a script is you don’t adapt, and we’re all about adapting to the weight of the changes in the world. We’ve found ourselves trying to achieve something on a corporate level every year, whether that is establishing an events business or building a team or creating an organisation.

“What we hadn’t anticipated when we walked through the gate was the opportunity to do more than the built environment we inherited. And so, through demand, we were able to look at what was an old coal yard, behind the Station HQ, and think what might we do there, because we thought the cluster could grow.

“We also had a side issue, in that most of the units in the Heritage Quarter are 2000 to 5000 square feet. There’s just a single 10,000 square-footer – and because it was the only one, we had a lot of demand.

So I thought maybe we should erect more buildings of 10,000 square feet; not the typical units with a 25year lifespan, but buildings that would sit well and be here for another 100 years.

“We got a unanimous planning approval in December 2019. In

March 2020, we all went into lockdown. But we delivered 70,000 square feet of brand-new buildings virtually completed by July ’21. Our first two tenants were Motorsport UK and HERO-ERA.”

What’s fascinating now is that not all the businesses in the new buildings, known as The Command Works, are solely in the historic sector; Motorsport UK is one such example, but EV maker Polestar, Zero Petroleum, Zapp Electric Vehicles and HiSpeed, making inverters for EVs, are also now based at Bicester.

“It’s full of interesting companies trying to forge a path and do business in a modern way that adds to the environment here. The unforeseen component, I think, for all of us in the sector is really legislation and the drive towards new technologies, so we have welcomed the opportunity to have technology businesses here. www.bicesterheritage.co.uk

“It has taken us into cutting-edge technology, and that’s important for a number of reasons. One is from an historical point of view; it’s an endorsement that technology still sees value in being co-located with historic technology. It provides new footfall. People who perhaps are really interested in the tech have come to try Polestar here. And they get to experience the historic cluster and they get that warm feeling of belonging to something. But also there were spin-off opportunities in terms of leading tech, and that sense of pride in being part of some new horizon.

“It’s an opportunity to reinvigorate the RAF DNA excitement around tech,” concludes Dan – and it’s also helping to keep the historic car and motorcycle worlds vibrant and alive.

Car Culture With Real Heritage

Henry’s Car Barn is way more than just car storage. Established in the early 80s, we have grown into a destination for car culture. Find out more on our website.

WWW.HENRYSCARBARN.CO.UK