Fun, frolics – and some work – on a Bantam!

I thoroughly enjoyed Pete Kelly’s article in OBM 434 with regard to the different use of motorcycles over the years.

I was particularly interested in the section about the GPO telegram delivery service as my first job from school at 15 was as a telegram boy at the Warrington sorting office. If memory serves me well, I think the office had four BSA Bantams and a two-pushbike delivery team to cover the town and surrounding area, including Earlestown where Pete grew up.

I obviously started on the pushbikes but I counted the days to my 16th birthday to get my licence and start on the Bantams.

The GPO in those days had its own trainer/ driving test examiners which would entail him observing your riding by following in his GPO Morris Minor van. What usually happened was a ride out to some quiet country lanes where he would park up, get his flask and newspaper out, and instruct us to put some miles on the bikes. I think you would have had to be incredibly stupid not to pass your test at the GPO in those days.

The day finally came when I got my Bantam. Now the bikes were fitted with a taller than normal throttle slide to govern the opening and obviously the speed, so the first stop would always be Jack Frodsham’s bike shop to get the correct smaller slide – but you had to remember to change them back when the bike went for a service or repair at the GPO garage.

If my mate Brian and I had deliveries to the north of the town (say, me to Newton and him to Lowton), plans would be made to meet up for a bit of ‘scrambling’ on the Mucky Mountains, a local ‘beauty’ spot in Earlestown (Pete will know them well). How the garage mechanics would laugh at the state of the bikes when we went to get fuel – not! Happy days.