Sir Malcolm and Donald Campbell

	Donald Campbell's K7 is seen at the north end of Bell Street. The tunnel is apparently open for traffic so this predates the image earlier than 1960. K7 was modified many times but looking at the design of the tail of the craft, it was probably after 1958. Bluebird was probably being moved from the Campbell's home near Povey Cross.

Sir Malcolm Campbell and his son Donald are well known for their world land and water speed records. They had a long association with the Reigate area.

Sir Malcolm Campbell was born in 1885 in Chislehurst Kent in 1885. In 1919, he moved to Canbury House in Kingston upon Thames where son Donald was born at in 1921. In late 1922, the family moved to Povey Cross (just to the north of the present boundary of Gatwick Airport).

	Earlier, K7 is seen approaching the Woodhatch junction where the Angel pub is on the far right corner. The haulage company, Graham Adams was a local haulier who built a special trailer to carry Bluebird. The company had also transported Malcolm Campbell's craft.

In 1927, Malcolm set a land speed record of 174mph at Pendine Sands in Wales. His final land speed record was an average of just over 301mph at Bonneville Salt Flats. For the water speed record attempts, he developed Blue Bird K4 with some of the flotation testing on Tilgate Lake in Crawley.He broke the record four times with World War 2 bringing an end to his speed runs. His record was over 140mph on Coniston Water in the Lake District.

He died in 1948 aged 63. He was knighted in 1931.

	K7 is travelling down Cockshot Hill and cars can be seen queuing on the right to exit Lesbourne Road.

Donald Campbell's attempts on the water speed record started in the summer of 1949 using K4. These were unsuccessful even after substantial modifications to K4. In early 1953 Donald started work on an all new design - Bluebird K7. The 'K' designation comes from the Lloyds notation for unlimited power vessels. To date there have only been 8 'K's with the Campbell family having numbers 4 and 7.

Donald set 7 water speed records between July 1955 and December 1964 with 216mph.

	K7 is now passing the old Town Hall.

Also in 1964, Donald Campbell achieved a land speed record of over 400mph with Bluebird CN7 at Lake Eyre in South Australia. The same year, he broke the water speed record at over 276mph on Lake Dumbleyung near Perth, Western Australia. He remains the only person to have broken both land and water records in the same year.

He started work on a rocket car. To boost funding, he decided to go for a water speed record of over 300mph with a modified K7 in 1967. With the target within reach after the first run, K7 flipped on the second run killing Campbell.

	This is thought to be the A24/A25 junction at Dorking looking west. The large building in the background would be the old Embassy cinema which was demolished in 1983.

Father and son achieved 11 land water speed records and 10 on land.

All images were taken by Mr Bernard Wheeley, with thanks to Mr Martin Wheeley who has allowed us to use the images.