Tuesday, 20 September 2011

Crankcase Post-script....

-SG- Back in July I sent in some early thirties photos of 1930 crankcases which had burst asunder – for whatever reason – and had then been welded up by Barimar Ltd. These had formed part of a Model 19 supplied in April 1930 to a Mr H.S Norton of Brandwood Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham.

Through a long-time friend, I have been in touch with one of ‘Pa’ Norton’s grand-daughters and she has recently written to advise that Mr. H S Norton was almost certainly her uncle Henry Spencer Norton who would have been in his early twenties when he took delivery of the bike. He was the youngest-but-one son of J L N and at the time, the family owned and lived in a house in Brandwood Road.

But there is another slightly intriguing fact to emerge: Henry’s daughter (my contact’s cousin) has been under the impression all these years that her father never actually owned a Norton so perhaps the cause of the bursting crankcases put him off them for life!