Recent content by PHIL72

Hi - no doubt you and I would have known many of the same friends/colleagues.

Hi - does anyone remember this factory, and possibly the "Archie Andrews" fan club circa 1952 ?? Any info gratefully received.

Hello - I certainly remember Roy Biddell.

As far as we are aware, in circa 1960 the garage was owned by Archie / Tommy / Ernie and Raymond Jauncey. The house on the right-hand side of the garage was the offices for the garage itself, and the house imediately next to that was where Raymond Jauncey lived, with his wife and son Rob. I do...

Hi Robert - that's right, it was a Blue Star garage for years - also a Texaco garage.

Interested to know if anyone has any memories,photos etc of "Jauncey's" garage which used to stand on the corner of Stockfield Road with the junction with Yardley Road in South Yardley?? The garage buildings ( or the majority of them ) were still standing recently in use as a garden centre /...

Hello - you certainly were not dreaming lesg128, and if my neighbour can find it, I will scan and upload a photo of it asap.

Hi - All the top sidecar outfits used Watsonian sidecars. For instance Norton's world champion Eric Oliver,and I think also Cyril Smith. The car becoming more affordable really was the start of the end of sidecars in the UK.

Hi Captblack - the biggest question is what you summed up all too well with your last line of reply "why do we allow it here"? And the answer has to be, that collectively as a country ( those all too few individuals apart ), us Brits are a bunch of mugs. We are the laughing stock of Europe. The...

Lyn / Mike - thanks for the information ref the name change from Little Cannon to Fore Street. Very interesting. I must take a trip up that way in the summer - and like yourselves - think "crumbs, you wouldn't recognise half of this if you had lived here at the turn of the century"! Might take a...

Both Taylor & Challen and "Wilkins and Mitchell" Ltd produced some of the finest presses ever. If you think just what their machines have made during the last 50yrs, both here in the UK and abroad, their contribution to the modern world is staggering. At least they have that legacy which will...

Too true Wendy - on far too many occasions the British public have failed to support manufacturing here in the UK. To not buy "home made" products in say Germany or France would be considered a scandal, and rightly so. Eg LDV vans ( formerly Freight Rover ) could have been supported by the...

Hi Louis - thanks for uploading the flickr photos link. These BSA photos are very interesting to me - especially the plunger framed BSA Gold Flash machines. I had the pleasure of meeting Herbert Hopwood ( BSA's and Norton's chief designer in their heyday ) at his home once. Keep up the posts -...

Great photos - thanks for uploading these. Very interesting. The bike in the background of the one photo is a Norton Dominator twin, 1956 onwards model - produced at Norton's works in Bracebridge Street. The bike that Eric is sitting on looks a nice machine - it has "leading link" front forks...