Book Review
“The Salt Box Cafe – Biggin Hill, Kent”
Recollections of a Rocker and part-time racer, through the Sixties and beyond. Dedicated to Bernie and Joyce Britton Author: Mike Gower Publisher: M W Gower Artwork and design: Darren Shaw Email: michaelgower@outlook.com Tel: 01732 357155 Softback, 210 x 295mm (portrait):
124 pages with over 320 photographs and illustrations. ISBN: 978-1-5272-7069-5
Payment: by cheque to M W Gower c/o 9 Howard Drive, Tonbridge, Kent TN10 4AQ £15.99 (inc. GB p&p)
Over six decades ago, in
1958, when Bernie and Joyce Britton purchased the Saltbox Cafe, little did they know that they were to shape the minds of the younger generation of the time and create wonderful memories.
Shortly after opening, under Bernie’s management, teenagers and motorcyclists started to call in and received a warm welcome. It offered evening opening times, a jukebox and table-top football, features that made the cafe very popular in an age when motorcyclists were often refused entry into pubs and cafes.
With the cafe’s success, the far-sighted owner, along with several regular customers, decided to form a proper motorcycle club – the Saltbox MCC, with membership cards, club badge and later its own magazine, all to encourage the young ‘rockers’ to support and take part in the many sporting and charitable activities that the club would be involved in.
Socially, there would be club runs, camping weekends, holidays in the Isle of Man, finishing with an annual dinner and dance – this, along with a large membership, made the Saltbox unique among motorcycle clubs.
Bernie and Joyce loved Biggin Hill and every year, through the club members, the Saltbox Cafe would organise carnivals and many other charitable events that would benefit the local area. The annual carnival consisted of a convoy of over 100 club riders in fancy dress, along with decorated vehicles and floats with some sponsorship from Bernie’s business associates, forming a convoy of 11½ miles on a 20-mile tour of surrounding districts, finishing with a fancy dress competition.
Author Mike Gower describes how he started road racing with several like-minded club members, ‘who could not afford any more endorsements on their already well-decorated driving licences!’
He continued racing his Manx Norton until it became uncompetitive and gives a fascinating description of his return to racing and parading with the CRMC in 1988 after building a Mk III
750 Seeley Commando and his involvement with the American Team Obsolete’s fabulous Grand Prix machines.
This is an interesting and well-written memoir of club life in the 1960s (finishing in the early 1970s when the cafe was sold), describing the camaraderie and lifetime friendships made, dedicated to the late, larger-than-life cafe owner and club president, Bernie Britton and his wife Joyce.
Book reviewed by Jonathan Hill.