We're pleased to announce that Dennis Frost has joined the BMCT Trustee board in place of the recently retired John Kidson. A lifelong motorcyclist, Dennis still has the Velocette he bought as a teenager, nowadays owning a few more machines produced at Veloce Limited’s Hall Green factory in Birmingham. Dennis has been a senior manager in UK universities running campus services and also a civil servant advising elected politicians. In the 1990s he took a break, joining The Classic MotorCycle magazine as their staff writer. He rode and wrote about machines from Anzani to Zenith and also judged motorcycle concours – a role he continues to carry out as head judge at the twice-yearly shows held the Stafford County Showground. Now retired, Dennis advises local authorities about the allowances councillors receive, while also being a board member of one of Britain’s largest pension schemes.

CHANGES TO THE BMCT MEMBERSHIP SCHEME Please read the following carefully, as it represents the most important change to our membership scheme since its inception more than twenty years ago. The present benefit of free museum admission will be replaced with a discount from 1st January 2023. The growth in membership has exceeded everyone’s expectations and today we have eighteen affiliated museums giving free entry to 2,700 associate members. We’ve reached the point where the financial impact on our partners, who are already struggling with the aftermath of Covid restrictions, has to be considered. We have consulted with the museums, looked at various options, and jointly decided that our membership benefit will change to half price museum entry, rather than the free entry offered hitherto. From 1st January 2023 new members and those renewing will receive a membership card confirming the concessions available at each museum. Discounts will be applied to the regular adult entry price, there are no further concessions for children, seniors, or groups. If you’re an existing member you’ll still be entitled to free museum entry until your card expires, and upon renewal you will be issued a discount card. Of course, we hope that you will take up the new offer and the cost of your subscription will remain at £20, as it has been right from the beginning. If you have an automatically renewing subscription and choose not to continue, you will need to stop the recurring payment in your PayPal account. We’re unable to cancel it on your behalf. We’ve taken this timely action to ensure the sustainability of the arrangement with our affiliated museums while still offering a very attractive package to our members. Please also bear in mind that there are still some museums that do not charge for entry. Full details of these are in our new Museums Guide. Link to Museum Section

RE-OPENINGS - Coronavirus restrictions mean that not all museums have so far re-opened. We recommend that for the latest information you visit the websites of the museums themselves. Go to the Museums tab on the menu above, then clicking on the individual museum details will take you through to their website. NEW AFFILIATES - We are delighted to announce two new affiliated museums:- Derby Museum of Making Isle of Man Motor Museum We look forward to working with them in the future and are sure members will enjoy supporting them. More information will follow in due course.

A new museum has joined the BMCT Affiliation Scheme. The Internal Fire Museum of Power is at Tanygroes near Cardigan on the Welsh coast and is run by husband-and-wife team Paul and Hazel Evans, ably assisted by their trustees and volunteers. The museum covers the history of the internal combustion engine in industry, transport and agriculture, and the collection covers early oil engines through to gas turbines but with the emphasis on diesel power from the 1920s to the 1960s. Exhibits are displayed in as near to original working environment, and new for the 2020 season will be a purpose built area displaying a range of vintage, veteran, classic and modern motorcycles. The BMCT are honoured to have been asked to provide machines for this new exhibition and to have input into their interpretation. In keeping with the theme of the museum, Paul Evans will be placing emphasis on the variety of internal combustion engines in motorcycles, focusing on the different engine configurations that have been adopted by manufacturers over the years. The museum opens Wednesday to Sunday and Bank Holidays from Easter to the end of October, and every day during August (check their website for times). Exhibits range from the oldest working diesel engines in the UK to fully operational vintage telephone exchanges. It’s a working museum, and engines made by manufacturers like Tangye, Ruston, Allen, Crossley, Lister, Petter and Sulzer can regularly be seen and heard running. There’s a museum shop and café, making it an ideal destination for club ride-outs during the summer months. Admission charges apply (again, see the museum website for details) but BMCT members will of course go free. The BMCT trustees are delighted to make the Internal Fire Museum our first affiliate in Wales as we seek to expand our network of museums across the UK. The address is Castell Pridd, Tanygroes, Ceredigion SA43 2JS. Look for the museum signs ¾ mile north of Tanygroes on the A487.

We're delighted to announce that we have acquired the semi-works 350cc AJS that finished fourth in the 1914 Junior TT at 43.1 mph, ridden by Billy Jones. Although a private entry (through his company, North Wales Motor Exchange), Jones received significant support from the AJS works team, including a works-spec. engine and a “saddle” oil tank that allowed extra room for fuel in the main petrol tank. AJS machines finished the five-lap race first (Eric Williams), second (Cyril Williams, no relation), fourth (Billy Jones), sixth (Bert Haddock) and 29th (Billy Heaton). Heaton had been lying in second place but crashed coming over the mountain for the final time, remounting and limping his machine home with a buckled front wheel. Third place was awarded to F. J. Walker on a Royal Enfield, although he had crashed with fatal consequences after crossing the finish line some 56 seconds ahead of Billy Jones. The Jones TT bike remained in Wrexham for several years. Billy had it as a showpiece in his shop before selling it to a local man (also called Jones) who kept it until the 1950s. It had deteriorated somewhat by the time another Wrexham man, Eric Stevens, discovered and restored it in time to take it back to the Isle of Man for a parade lap of the course in 1959. Graham Walker persuaded Eric to loan the bike to the Montagu Motor Museum where it stayed until being acquired by John Griffith, who displayed it at his Stanford Hall Motorcycle Museum. The last owner of the AJS was Ray Carter, who owned and cherished the bike since 1983. Ray used it on VMCC club runs several times before the woeful lack of braking power persuaded him to take it off the road a dozen or so years ago. It was no slouch on the road, apparently. Eric Stevens had it timed at over 70 mph over a flying half-mile after he’d rebuilt it! This unique, sole surviving AJS from the 1914 Junior TT will now return to its spiritual home on the Isle of Man where it will be one of the stars of an impressive new TT and Manx Grand Prix gallery opening later this year at the Manx Museum in Douglas.

The Norton Museum Collection has become the fifteenth museum to affiliate with the BMCT. The museum, in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, is the culmination of a lifetime’s work by the founder, Dennis Norton. And that’s a clue - this is NOT a museum of Norton motorcycles! There are motorcycles present, however. Two of them, to be precise, both are Banshees, made in Bromsgrove, and they’re believed to be the only two survivors of the marque in the world. Dennis Norton started collecting interesting objects in 1949 when he was given a Miller No.1 carbide lamp while working at what was then the Austin Motor Company at Longbridge. That was enough to spark Dennis’s interest in collecting, and he soon began to concentrate on items from the local Bromsgrove area. Local crafts included nail and button making, glass, and the world-famous Bromsgrove Guild, which was known for the decorative features that adorned important buildings all over the world - the gates at Buckingham Palace and Liver Birds atop the Royal Liver building in Liverpool are examples of their work. The collection also represents the lives of the local people through hundreds of artefacts from toys and wirelesses to haberdashery and jewellery. Initially based in a redundant school building outside Bromsgrove, the ever-expanding Norton Collection became so popular that a new home had to be found, leading to Dennis acquiring and restoring a derelict Georgian house on Birmingham Road, Bromsgrove. The Collection continued to grow, but as it prospered the local council took an interest and bumped up the rates! Unable to meet the Council’s demands Dennis sold the property and eventually the Norton Collection, by now a registered charity, re-located to the Coach House next door, where it has been ever since.

BMCT SECURES IMPORTANT MANX NORTON BMCT trustee and former TT winner John Kidson (right) presents the latest BMCT acquisition to Matthew Richardson of Manx National Heritage. The bike is the ex-Bill Beevers/Noel Stephenson/Ben Noble 350 Manx Norton which has a long history of TT and MGP racing behind it, and is unrestored and still in "as raced" condition. It will form an important part of the Manx Museum's new exhibition opening in 2020. Bill Beevers bought the bike new in 1960 to use for his swansong TT (he had been racing since the early 1930s and was by then 55 years old). He finished 6th in the Sidecar race, 35th in the Senior on his 500 Manx, and 44th in the Junior TT on this bike. It was then sold to Noel Stephenson of Preston, who raced it the Junior Manx Grand Prix from 1961 to 1965, before it was acquired by Bernard (Ben) Noble, of Driffield. Ben campaigned the bike at the Manx Grand Prix for some thirty years in the Junior and Junior Classic classes, with a best result being 19th in the 1985 Classic, and a best lap speed of 81.86 mph in 1993. What makes this 350 Manx so unusual is its continuous documented history and its “as raced” condition. These attributes attracted the attention of the people at Manx National Heritage, who had been looking for a long time for such a bike to form part of an important new gallery exhibition they are developing at the Manx Museum in Douglas. When asked, we were delighted to assist by acquiring the machine, with memorabilia including Ben Noble’s pudding basin helmet and leathers, and placing it on long term loan in the museum.

We are pleased to have contributed to the latest project at the London Motorcycle Museum which sees the late Derek Minter’s collection of racing trophies and other memorabilia preserved intact, instead of being broken up, following the recent passing of Derek and his wife Jenny. Derek had been unwell for some time, having suffered a stroke and crashing while doing demonstration laps on a Manx Norton at Darley Moor in 2000. Jenny cared for him until she sadly lost her own battle in August 2014, leaving Derek in the care of the nursing home where he passed away in January this year. While she was still alive Jenny was determined to safeguard the future of Derek’s trophies, and through the efforts of Colin Seeley a deal was brokered which saw Bill Crosby and the London Motorcycle Museum purchase the trophies, whereupon the BMCT stepped in with grant aid to provide for their display in the new Derek Minter Café. Our photo shows BMCT trustees Nick Jeffery, John Kidson, Mike Jackson and Ian Walden at the unveiling of the trophy collection. The museum is open Saturday to Monday, and of course with preferential access for BMCT members.