As events go that are cued by an anniversary, the Aston Hill Centenary was a standout one-off. Aston Hill in Buckinghamshire, set in the rolling Chiltern Hills, was not just a competitive hillclimb location back in the day, but an important testing ground for cars and motorcycles from 1904 until 1925.
Large crowds attended the events and witnessed the evolution of early cars and motor sport, and they would have seen pioneers such as SF Edge, WO Bentley, Percy Kidner, HFS Morgan, Raymond Mays, Humphrey Cook, Dorothy Levitt and one Lionel Martin, whose wife Kate suggested that the hill’s name should be adjoined to theirs for the company’s first car. Many descendants of the period’s drivers were in attendance for the Aston Hill Centenary celebrations on May 17, 2025.
This charming anniversary event was the brainchild of two locals, Steve Akers and Mike Stark, who have also produced a fine book on the history of the event. The day celebrated the original hillclimb series, organised by the Herts County Auto and Aero Club, which came back to help run the 2025 event under the same permit that had been issued for the climb 100 years ago.
On May 17, thousands of people – many from overseas – turned up to see and encourage 87 cars and motorcycles run up the exact original course. The Aston Hill Centenary participants departed from the nearby village of Aston Clinton, site of a successful accompanying exhibition about the history of the hill. They set off at 60-second intervals to head to the startline then up the hill – which has many gradients, the steepest of which was rather challenging. The venerable machines were flagged off at the start by members of the Aston Clinton School. This was truly a community event with huge support.
Unsurprisingly, the dominant marque at the Aston Hill Centenary was Aston Martin, with no fewer than seven Bamford and Martin pre-1925 era cars in attendance. ‘Green Pea’ the 1922 Count Zborowski French GP car and the dramatic-looking ‘Razor Blade’ (pictured above) drew great cheers from the sell-out crowd.
At the top of the hill an arena awaited the cars. This filled up satisfyingly during the day, with each driver being eloquently interviewed to build up a picture of pioneering cars and motorists. For instance, the 1921 Bentley TT of Richard Frankel competed at Aston Hill in 1922; driven by WG Barlow, it finished second to Lionel Martin’s Aston Martin. At the time it was awarded the Jay Cup for being the highest-placed car run by a member of the Herts County Auto and Aero Club, and the prestigious cup was reunited with the Bentley more than 100 years later at the Aston Hill Centenary.
Surrounding the arena were displays of nearly 500 vintage and classic cars to add to the grand village fete atmosphere under clear blue skies. The Aston Hill Centenary was a credit to the organisers and the community; a day of great sights, smells and rarely seen but significant vehicles. There was much talk of the next event – and it is hard to see that we will have to wait until 2125.
