Cinders to Shale

There is a small museum not too far from where I live dedicated to speedway racing. Strangely, the owner only opens it for one day a year, but it's his museum, so his rules.

A while back I got the nod that it was time for the annual open day and, although I'm not a huge fan of the sport, decided to pop along and have a look.

As museums go, it's quite small. Entrance is by donation and you enter through a narrow corridor covered in advertising posters. 

Turn a corner and you are met with a large room absolutely packed with bikes and even more memorabilia the strangest of which must be the jam jars lovingly labelled and full of ash and cinders from particular tracks and specific races.

The bikes themselves are pristine and they are obviously well cared for, unlike a lot of exhibits you come across in much bigger museums. They range from the vintage to the modern and include names like Vincent and Scott who I didn’t know made such specialist machines.

All in all it was a pleasant way to pass an hour or so and I’d recommend it should you manage to hear of it’s next open day.

Boots For Dancing

Something a little different for today.

On a recent trip to London for a concert my wife and I paid a trip to Camden Market. While there we popped into a large store selling Dr. Martens in all their current varieties.

If you don’t know them, Dr. Martens are fairly utilitarian, unisex footwear popular with the young and the not-so-young. I’ve worn ‘Docs’ on and off for most of my adult life. They are comfortable, hard-wearing and used to be fairly affordable before they became fashionable. I still wear them on the bike in the summer months and, in fact, on this occasion, coincidentally, both of us happened to have a pair on.

The store was much as you’d expect, so I wandered away a bit as my wife browsed the merchandise and right at the back came across a room set up with a smallish stage and sound equipment. That would be unusual enough in a shoe shop, but it was the glass cases around the perimeter that really caught my eye.

These appeared to form some sort of museum exhibit and were full of memorabilia and footwear showing how Dr. Martens were synonymous with, and an integral part of the British music scene from the 70s onwards, and in particular, the early punk scene. 

The items on the Sex Pistols and, particularly, The Clash must be worth a small fortune to collectors of such things.

I spent a happy ten minutes or so wandering around looking at the exhibits and internally reliving parts of my misspent youth. After that, I didn’t feel so bad about being dragged around the shops.

“Always wear shoes that are good for running or fighting” - Joe Strummer / The Clash

Protect & Serve

Below are some of the Police motorcycles in the National Motorcycle Museum