A lovely lady and the Isle of Man
I came across these two photographs which are magic, well for me, anyhow. My late wife Jeannette and I spent our honeymoon at the Beach Hotel in Ramsey, on the Isle of Man in September 1960 and during the time there we hired a scooter in order to do a lap of the TT course in order to see how we fared.
Well, for a start, on said scooter we were not about to break any records (particularly since it was also the intention of stopping off at any inviting cafes), including a screaming turn round the Ramsey Hairpin (well, more of a phut-phut really), then on through the Gooseneck turns and on to the Guthrie Memorial on the Mountain for my favourite picture of my wife seated on the scooter. At the end of it all we managed 11 and a half miles an hour for the lap. Not bad, eh!
The second picture is of my wife stealing a ride on this beautiful BSA Gold Star DB34. She sat upon the bike which was parked back from the TT course near Ramsey, where I took the picture, and we were not caught by the then owner who was no doubt elsewhere watching the racing. However, this bike is still registered and is a 1954 (the same age as my Fergie tractor) and was registered in Preston. It still had an MoT in 2009, was taxed in 2016 and had a V5 issued on May 24, 2016. This is an amazing find for PEL 992 so clearly marked up on the registration plate and a bit of interesting information for the present owner. We then left and went on our way, hired a couple of horses and finished the day off riding in the woods and beyond. A lovely memory.
Maurice Arden