Chat 4
First the answer to the photograph in Chat 3
The elephant is a pie funnel. It holds up the pastry and the trunk lets out the steam.
Bird figures were often used and called 'pie birds'. "Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie ................."
Congratulations to all those that sent in the correct answer. Quite a few answers this time. I think that giving the “ask your wife” clue contributed to this. Well done ladies. (Ed.)
An honourable mention for Pat Robotham for the
most imaginative wrong answer: " Its a bong
for smoking dope".
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Trevor Shakespeare posted 30/03/2020 >>>
Part 1.
Back in the First World War Matchless were
commissioned to build sidecar outfits with a machine gun mounted on
the chair. There is currently one in the Tank Museum at Bovington,
with video of it running on YouTube. Matchless were asked by the
Tsarist Russian Government to build a batch for them. Unfortunately
for the Tsar and Co. there was a revolution, so the machines were
never dispatched, I assume as they would not have been paid for.
That left Matchless with a batch (of 650?) sidecar outfits powered
by an 8hp (1000cc) JAP twin. As our side came first in that conflict
they were marketed as "The Victory Model" and sold in the UK. One of
these was registered in Manchester in 1919 but migrated to
Ilfracombe at some time after that. The then owner used it
occasionally for a few years but it was put in a shed in 1926. It
stood there until he died in 1955, surviving WW2 scrap drives. His
spinster daughter gave the bike to a young lad who lived three doors
up the street. He and his brothers used it around the local fields
and lanes until the throttle cable broke. They tied the throttle
open and tried to ride it like that until one day they met a bus
coming the other way. It was a case of front of the bus or through
the hedge; the hedge won. After that he decided to take it apart to
'do it up'. This didn't happen and in 1958 he moved to Birmingham
for work. He met a Sutton Coldfield girl and they emigrated to the
USA in 1967. The bike was then given to one of his friends in
Ilfracombe. This guy was killed in a car crash in 1974 and he was
asked to get rid of it by his friends’ widow. The bike was then
dismantled again, put in a crate and shipped to his place in rural
Southern Pennsylvania. It stayed in the crate, which was never
opened, until 2011.
The next part of the story will follow when my fingers have
recovered from keyboard use. Trevor.
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Chris Harper posted 30/03/2020 >>>
I haven’t had a career like John Goodall, just a load of jobs, rail clerk, book shop, cake salesman, lorry driver, etc. I worked at Norton when came back to Wolverhampton, same machines as at Bracbridge Street. Contrast with the bit of Villiers that was left! Lots of modern machines Barfed autos etc. They would have been better off making a 500 2/stroke twin instead of the Commando. I've been a motorcyclist since I was 16 and ridden most days since I joined VMCC in 1988. Any chance a few of us could do a short run on 10th May A mock Parade I’d be up for it naughty Chris. (I doubt it but we can all wish. Ed.)
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Here is another photo quiz question from John Grew in Spain: Clue: "In the current circumstances, you might be able to guess what this is". Answers before tomorrow evening by email to: edgrew@virginmedia.com
