veteran motorcycles

Pa and His Pa: The Norton Founder, a 1921 Photograph and an Extraordinary Motorcycle Adventure

by

Mark Lancaster

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17th October 2026

Though always known as ‘Pa’ Norton, this picture shows the company founder with his own pa. Plus, some famous faces look on. Simon Robinson reports… The Norton motorcycle company sprang from the Norton Manufacturing Company, which was set up in 1869 by James Lansdowne Norton to manufacture bicycle chains. It was in 1902 that Norton…
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Wearwell: The Wolverhampton Motorcycle Pioneer Brought Down by Scandal

by

Mark Lancaster

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15th October 2026

From bicycle manufacturing to early motorcycles, Wearwell looked set to become a major name in the British motorcycle industry. But financial wrongdoing brought the company’s promising future to an abrupt end. Like so many, Wearwell started out as a bicycle manufacturer. The Cogent Cycle Co was founded by Henry Clarke and the business included his…
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The Thorough: the short-lived motorcycle that offered unusually long test rides

by

Mark Lancaster

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8th September 2026

At the end of the 19th century George Featherstone was an ironmonger living in Bethnal Green but he had a son who was interested in the great strides that transportation was taking. It seems likely that it was John Featherstone who persuaded his father into producing a motorcycle in 1903. By then, John, now in…
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Swan Motor Manufacturing

by

Mark Lancaster

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26th May 2026

The Swan Motor Manufacturing began life in Frodsham High Street in Cheshire in around 1910 and exhibited its first motorcycle at the Olympia Show in 1911. This was an open-frame machine with, unusually for the time, front and rear suspension. The founder of the company was FH Thornton who lived in a large house opposite…
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veteran motorcycles

Pa and His Pa: The Norton Founder, a 1921 Photograph and an Extraordinary Motorcycle Adventure

Wearwell: The Wolverhampton Motorcycle Pioneer Brought Down by Scandal

The Thorough: the short-lived motorcycle that offered unusually long test rides

Swan Motor Manufacturing

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