Thursday, March 5, 2015

The Twilight of Norton Motors, 1975

Ronald Allison, The Country Life of Britain in the Seventies.  (Country Life Books, 1980). 
Incomplete Commandos sit idle, along with their builders, as the government and industry debacle took its toll and the once proud Norton name was brought low. During this decade, a large part of the British manufacturing industry went down the tubes.  For NVT, the best observer was Mike Jackson, who wrote an excellent series of "Yesteryear" articles for Motorcycle Sport and Leisure in the early 2000's. 

 Interestingly, David Edgar wrote a play about the closure of the Meriden factory and the development of the worker's cooperative before the entire enterprise went down the tubes.   Published in 1976, it's titled, "Events Following the Closure of a Motorcycle Factory."  Apparently, it was performed by the Birmingham Repertory Theatre.  It's a view from the workers' point of view.

 To read a little more, visit Triumph for the workers of a Meriden motorcycle factory.
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What really killed them was to have the enormous temerity to give up the silver, black and red and start painting their tanks black and gold, of all things. Who the hell did they think they were, Vincent or Velocette? And a Commando tank looked mighty fine in the traditional livery instead of all that 70's coloured disco-pop rubbish they used. I repainted a few of them into the proper colours 'back in the day' as you trendy young people say and the riders of those bikes sat ten feet taller in their saddles, that's for sure!

March 6, 2015 at 1:06 AM

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