1930 MOTORBIKE BEING SOLD BY CRACK RAF BOMBER PILOT TO SAVE A SOMERSET VILLAGE CHURCH - H&H CLASSICS AUCTION ON APRIL 7th NATIONAL MOTORCYCLE MUSEUM



The whole community is doing its bit to seal the deal on saving the church which plays host to a number of community projects. The bike will be sold at auction by H&H Classics on April 7th at the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham. It is estimated to sell for £25,000 to £27,000.

  The Norton & the church it will help to save for the community

Bill Southcombe explains why his bike has come to be sold to save the church. “If we fail to buy the church it will be auctioned by the Synod, to developers probably, or left to decay.” As a Trustee of the charity set up to save the church he has already donated the value of two other of his bikes.

“It’s a Congregational Church built by my ancestor, Richard Southcombe, for the community in 1866. It is 2* listed and in very good condition and was given to the URC Synod in 2016 by the Elders. If we are to save it we must pay the Synod this year, 2020”

Hamdon Community Arts Project (HCAP) has been founded to buy back the building for £100,000, half its market price, as a community sale. HCAP is registered as a Charity. Currently the church houses a playgroup founded in 1974, a local band founded 1945 and a charity shop. The church has an exquisite 900 pipe organ donated by Julia Southcombe in 1875 which is still in perfect condition. HCAP organises plays, recitals, music competitions, and the performance of Handel's Messiah.

The Business Plan for HCAP has earned Parish and Somerset County Council support. Besides the £100,000 needed to secure the church a further £100,000 is needed to convert it.

Bill Southcombe joined RAF as a navigator in 1961 and flew three tours with the Vulcan B2 BS at Scampton (83 Sqn), Cottesmore (9Sqn) and Akrotiri Cyprus. He won Strike Command Bombing Competition, beating USAF B52 and F111s in 1970. Posted to Phantom FGR2 at Coningsby(6 Sqn). Night ground attack and deployment.

Detached to Akrotiri in 1974 with 6 Sqn to keep peace after invasion of Cyprus by Turkey. Posted to RAF Germany on 14 Sqn, then to Leuchars (43Sqn) on Phantom FG1 on Quick Reaction Alert, intercepting Russian bombers in UK air space.

Represented RAF Motor Sports Association in IOM MGP and TTs 1965-1968.

Returning from Tengah non Stop in 1974 in a Phantom (6Sqn) Pilot Bill Southcombe on the right in his RAF days

Mike Davis of H&H Classics, says: “Top of FormTop of FormBill Southcombe’s 1930 Norton is one of the very first Arthur Carol designed CS1 Norton's to have been made. It left the Norton works on the 20th of December 1930, sold to Mr H G Turner (possibly for racing) as it was not registered for road use until 1934.

With its three-brace frame only used in 1930/1 for CS1's, left hand exhaust port, fitted with factory four speed sturmey archer gearbox (Daytona ratios) it still retains its original high lift cams 76 1-1/6.

Purchased in approximately 1969 in a dismantled state by the current vender, the machine was untouched and kept in boxes due to moving around the country for RAF duties.

Restoration started in 2003 on his retirement. The engine was restored by well-known Brooklands tuner Francis Beart's mechanic Keith Manning. There is a large file with various photos, documents for work carried out on the bike.”

Bottom of Form

FOR MORE PRESS INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT THE H&H CLASSICS PRESS OFFICE: Julian Roup ON +44 (0) 7970 563958 OR email info@bendigopr.co.uk

NOTES FOR EDITORS:

H&H was founded by Simon Hope in 1993 as a specialist auction house dedicated solely to the sale of collectors’ motorcars and motorcycles. Some 26 years later, the company can boast a continuous trading history, which exceeds that of any UK rival. The company is staffed by hands-on enthusiasts with over 600 years’ combined experience, and its specialist valuers are among the most knowledgeable in the industry.

H&H has had the pleasure of handling everything from 1890s London to Brighton runners through to 1990s Formula 1 cars, not to mention a variety of iconic motorcycles and holds a considerable number of World Record auction prices.

With the head office near Warrington, Cheshire and its Private Sales Garage near Hindhead in Surrey and specialists based throughout Europe, H&H holds regular physical sales at the Imperial War Museum Duxford in Cambridgeshire, National Motorcycle Museum in the West Midlands and Pavilion Gardens, Buxton. There are also Automobilia Online Sales and Live Auctions Online throughout the year.

William Southcombe:

Born in Leeds in 1942. father, a glove manufacturer.

Educated at Marlborough where where he kept an old Norton racer (International) in a local pub.

Apprenticed at Allens, Bedford.

Joined RAF as a navigator in 1961. Flew 3 tours with the Vulcan B2 BS at Scampton (83 Sqn), Cottesmore (9Sqn) and Akrotiri Cyprus.

Won Strike Command Bombing Competition, beating USAF B52 and F111s in 1970. Posted to Phantom FGR2 at Coningsby(6 Sqn). Night ground attack and deployment.

Detached to Akrotiri in 1974 with 6 Sqn to keep peace after invasion of Cyprus by Turkey.

Posted to RAF Germany on 14 Sqn, then to Leuchars (43Sqn) on Phantom FG1 on Quick Reaction Alert, intercepting Russian bombers in UK air space.

Represented RAF Motor Sports Association in IOM MGP and TTs 1965-1968

Represented RAF at Polo in the 1980s

Various ground tours. Airborne Evaluator for NATO Tacevals. Posted 6 months to Falklands. Played for Joint Services Polo team against Farmers and Sheepshearers in Falkland Games. – 4 Teams! And took part in horse races in Stanley.

Air and Naval Attache in Abu Dhabi in 1992 and Defence Attache to Doha, Qatar 1995-1999.

Worked in a Bank in Egypt. Then MOD as a civilian.

Worked for Glastonbury Festival since 2003.

Moved to Stoke sub Hamdon in 2018.

Raced the Atlantic in ARC 2016 in a 72ft Challenger. 1st in Class

Royal British Legion case worker

Duke of Edinburgh Award Somerset Committee

Rotarian

Liveryman Worshipful Company of Glovers

Keen shot, Fisherman, sailor, rider, motorcyclist

Still Restores motorcycles and rides them on trackdays and IOM TT parades

The Old United Reformed Church

The problem was the capital outlay of £100,000 needed to purchase the building as a Community project ( its survey value was £190,000)  ie: . To buy a building that the Village had already bought and paid for over the past 150 years. The Village Elders had spent £80,000 on the Church restoration in the 1990s.

Converting the old Church would cost a further £100,000, provided that Listed approval and Planning Permission could be obtained, but HCAP had shown that it was a viable project without this conversion.

So far we have raised £55,000 through Council Grants, pledges and local crowd funding. The Synod had asked for a decision to purchase by 2020 to retain our Community discount so £45,000 was urgently required.

As a Trustee and villager I was unwilling to see this project fail, together with the eviction of the Playgroup, Band and Community Shop. I had a small collection of racing motorcycles that I had restored over the past 50 years so I proposed using these to help purchase the Church. So far I have sold a pre-war Norton ES2 for £9,500 and, together with previous sales of motor-cycles last year, aim to find the balance of at least £30,000 through the sale of my beloved Norton CS1 which is now 90 years old and in mint condition.

1930 Camshaft Norton

I purchased the CS1  Norton from George Beale in 1972 as a box of bits and through friends at the Vintage Motorcycle Club and Norton Villiers Motors could confirm that it was one of the very first batch of overhead cam Nortons designed by Arthur Carroll and Joe Craig in 1929/30. The CS1 was vintage       ( pre 31Dec1930) and restorable. It had been used for racing throughout its life but had been registered for the road. The restoration of the engine and gear box were finished by Keith Manning (who worked with Francis Beart) and George Cohen (Norton George) who helped with the bicycle parts.

The 1931 Norton CS1 became the 1932 International, then developed into the 30M Norton and finally the Manx Norton in 1947. In the 1930s it was almost unbeaten in road racing and came to epitomise the Isle of Man TT races from which it drew its name. Many famous riders from the 1930s made their name on Norton racing machines.

Bill Southcombe

07716 756510

bill.southcombe@gmail.com