Coventry Society Founder Member, Paul Maddocks, doesn’t drive or ride, but has a fascination with Brough motorcycles, which were made in Nottingham, but may have had their origins in Coventry. Paul writes…..
If you ever get the chance to see the film ‘Lawrence of Arabia’, staring Peter O’Toole, you will see in the opening shots of the film there is a motorcycle parked up. TE Lawrence gets on to it and rides it through the local country lanes at high speed, but ends up crashing it and dying. You may think that’s a strange start to a film? But in the next scene it has a newspaper reporter at Lawrence’s funeral talking to mourners asking what was Lawrence like? And so, the film begins the tale. The motorcycle was a powerful Brough Superior, one of many that Lawrence owned.
Many years ago, when I was just starting art college, one of the older students used to come to college on an old Brough Superior motorcycle. A 1000cc ’V’ twin engine motorcycle that was both very large and long with a very broad petrol tank. It was a monster and all my fellow students came out to look at it. I even drew it, and have been fascinated with them ever since. Motorcycles like this are the most iconic and sought after motors on the planet, originally labelled as the “Rolls-Royce of motorcycles”. They are collectors’ items and can change hands for hundreds of thousands of pounds.
So, does Coventry have any connection with this iconic motorcycle? Well, it seems that it could have been conceived in Coventry!
Damien Kimberley of the Coventry City Archives and Museum Service has been researching this question over a very long time. It has opened up some very interesting information about the original designer George Brough.
George’s father, William Edward Brough, was also a motorcycle manufacturer since 1902, but his son came to Coventry to both work and learn the art of making great engines and wonderful fast motorcycles. He first worked at the White & Poppe engine manufacturers and other companies in the city, all the time working on his own designs for motorcycles and buying other manufacturer’s motorcycles, such as Coventry Eagle. He became good friends with Percy Mayo, a member of the family who ran Coventry Eagle. They later worked on various projects together.
George Brough found that testing various motorcycles, looking at the best features and learning what type of engine is best, he was able to came up with his iconic vehicle.
The research is very twisty-turny and is quite hard to follow. There isn’t space to describe it in this short article, but you how have the opportunity to see and read the full report on Rob Orland’s wonderful website ‘Historic Coventry’ where you can read how Damien followed the trail through the difficult path of finding out the truth and the result will amaze you.
So, make a cup of tea and sit back and read this interesting bit of detective work.
You can read Damien’s full article here.
Photo – https://www.brough-superior.com/