An hour... ... in the archive

There’s a place within Mortons’ head office that ought to have a health and safety warning. No, it’s not the press hall with all the printing machinery – though it does have such notices in all required places – nor is it the warehouse, though it too has the required safety information. The place I’m referring to is a seemingly innocuous room just across from the editorial desks. It is a place where time is recorded by image, a place where such information depicting more than a 100 years of motorcycling lies ready to ensnare the unwary… yes, I’m talking about Mortons Archive.

Now there’s not an issue of that doesn’t contain some form of classic image from the various elements that make up the archive, and while it wouldn’t be impossible to put the magazine together without access to the imagery it would be a whole lot more difficult and arguably less of a read without it. The problem is having used the archive on a daily basis while editing and other titles in the group over a 16-year period it becomes something you don’t think about and not until someone outside the daily sphere mentions it am I reminded of how lucky we