A fascinating glimpse of the past is contained in a photograph album to be auctioned in the UK next month.

The album, from a private collection of material being sold by Locktons, of Martlesham in Suffolk, contains around 50 photographs showing bike racing in the Isle of Man, including the accompanying shots taken at the Isle of Man TT Races in the 1950s.

Isle of Man Newspapers’ sports editor John Watterson said the grandstand picture looked like the start of the Lightweight 250 race from 1954, which would have used the Clypse course.

The route, which took in the Creg-ny-Baa back road rather than the full Mountain Course, was used for a time in the 1950s but is no longer used for racing today.

‘The leading bikes could be works NSUs I think, with Werner Haas prominent,’ he said.


He suggests the other pictures taken in the enclosure with the bikes leaning against the posts, which was the tradition of the period after a race, look like a mix of 500 Nortons along with a 250 Moto Guzzi, number 6.

Bill Snelling, who runs the FoTTofinders archive, agreed the date was 1954 and was able to add some extra information after consulting his own records.

Included in the pictures are Ken Kavanagh’s Junior Moto Guzzi, 6, and Harold Clark’s Norton, 47.

Also to be seen are Bill Maddrick’s bike at number 8 and Arthur Wheeler’s Moto Guzzi, number 27, along with Ray Petty’s Norton, which is number 11, and Ernie Barrett’s Phoenix, number 9 for the Lightweight TT.

The other photograph does indeed show the start of the 1954 Lightweight TT, with the NSU team leading off. At the front are Armstrong 30, Haas 7, Baltisberger 18 and Muller, 24.



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