Wartime Motorcycling in Period Publications

Discussion in 'General' started by Rich Payne, Aug 13, 2011.

  1. Rich Payne

    Rich Payne Rivet Counter Patron 1940 Obsessive

    I have quite a lot of scanned images from 1930s and 1940s issues of the two weekly motorcycling magazines published in the UK.

    I'm not quite sure where I stand copy-right wise but felt that some of these period-pieces deserved a wider audience.

    Prior to the outbreak of war, the army authorities were gradually beginning to see motorcycle competition as a useful training aid. I've seen mention of an awareness that, in many cases, standards of vehicle handling fell well below the similar standards of horsemanship which would have been expected fifteen or more years earlier.

    This report relates to the Eastern Command trial held in April 1939.

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    Deliberately induced faults during the overnight stop are a bit sneaky.

    As an image pinched from the net shows, Eynsford ford has changed little outwardly today but I'd expect that the bed of the ford has been improved ( not in the eyes of those of us who like to get motorcycles muddy though).

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    Ford at Eynsford:: OS grid TQ5365 :: Geograph Britain and Ireland - photograph every grid square!
     
  2. Rich Payne

    Rich Payne Rivet Counter Patron 1940 Obsessive

    I believe that both the weeklies operated schemes early on to try and help ensure that those who wanted to ride could join as motorcyclists.

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  3. phylo_roadking

    phylo_roadking Very Senior Member

    Rich, thanks for the second of those; I'd heard of the "industry" schemes, but never seen the actual magazine pages. Over the years I've gotten my hands on a few dozen assorted Blue 'Uns and Green 'Uns...but the wartime ones never seem to appear at jumbles and car boot sales.
     
  4. Rich Payne

    Rich Payne Rivet Counter Patron 1940 Obsessive

    There were regular recruiting coupons in both the weeklies through late 1939 and most of 1940.

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    If you're ever at a loose end when in Burton-on Trent, Phylo, spend some time in the VMCC library. they have pretty well full sets going back to about 1900. If I lived closer, my family would never see me.:)
     
  5. Vitesse

    Vitesse Senior Member

    Rich, thanks for the second of those; I'd heard of the "industry" schemes, but never seen the actual magazine pages. Over the years I've gotten my hands on a few dozen assorted Blue 'Uns and Green 'Uns...but the wartime ones never seem to appear at jumbles and car boot sales.
    Wartime magazines - especially specialist ones - are rarer than rocking horse poo. Paper shortages meant that they were only allowed to print enough to meet firm orders and the continual salvage schemes meant that hardly anybody kept them and many pre-war ones disappeared too. Lots went to prison camps and never came back either.
     
  6. Rich Payne

    Rich Payne Rivet Counter Patron 1940 Obsessive

    I usually manage to find something at the Beaulieu jumble each year (it's coming up soon :)). I try to restrict myself to copies with something that particularly interest me now as the prices are around the £5 - £6 per issue mark and it's no longer possible to buy whole bundles for the price of a couple of beers.

    They do turn up on eBay too but it's always a bit of a gamble buying unseen as, to be honest, many of the wartime issues are a little thin on reading matter after 1940 although things improved again after June 1944.

    The specialist press did at least print a good selection of official photographs if there was any motorcycling interest and the photographic archives of the magazines now are a good source of research material.
     
  7. phylo_roadking

    phylo_roadking Very Senior Member

    Wartime magazines - especially specialist ones - are rarer than rocking horse poo. Paper shortages meant that they were only allowed to print enough to meet firm orders


    I wonder...

    Rich, I know that Motorcycling and The Motorcycle carried a lot of Forces' motorsport news during the war; the interservice/inter-unit trials etc. Are you aware if the publishers were favoured when it came to procurement because of this???
     
  8. Rich Payne

    Rich Payne Rivet Counter Patron 1940 Obsessive

    I've never been aware that they were unable to supply subscribers but it is clear that there were less in the newspaper shops.

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    I don't think that most people kept them. This is also true of the pre-war issues where the most common by far are the show and TT issues which were kept as souvenirs.
     
  9. Vitesse

    Vitesse Senior Member

    I wonder...

    Rich, I know that Motorcycling and The Motorcycle carried a lot of Forces' motorsport news during the war; the interservice/inter-unit trials etc. Are you aware if the publishers were favoured when it came to procurement because of this???
    I don't think anybody got special treatment. When paper rationing was introduced in February 1940 book publishers were allotted a percentage of the amount of paper they had used in the twelve months to August 1939: initially this was set at 60%, but it was varied over the following years. Each rationing period lasted 13 weeks.

    It seems that paper for the press was centrally negotiated through the Newsprint Supply Co Ltd - this letter to The Times is from 1943:

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    However, there does seem to have been some sort of free market in paper. This is again from 1943, pointing out loopholes in the regulations. According to Ian Norrie's "Publishing and Bookselling in the Twentieth Century" a number of established publishers started new imprints specifically to take advantage of this:

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    Paper rationing did not end until 1949.
     
  10. Nevil

    Nevil WW2 Veteran/Royal Signals WW2 Veteran

    Fascinating to see these publications again, Rich. I had almost forgotten about them.

    I recall one member of our DR section came to us through one of these Motor Cycling registrations in late 1939. It had not been a direct route though......he had wanted to be a DR but was changed to Driver trade in Signals on enlistment. It took him a couple of months to get to where he wanted to be.
    Nevil.
     

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