Backwards Glance

Besides my life-long interest in old motorb ikes, I am interested in local history and volunteer at Frenchay Village Museum near Bristol. Each year the museum hosts a vintage vehicle day, and about 15 years ago I got talking to another museum volunteer. He was clearing the house of an old friend and was throwing lots of old motorcycle related materials into a skip. Would be interested in any of it?

There were hundreds of original pen and ink drawings by a technical artist named Francis Simpson who, it transpired, was technical artist with magazine from 1916 to 1932 and also marketing manager with Douglas Motorcycles. The drawings were mostly of motorcycles, and sectioned engines/ gearboxes, with the internal working shown . Amazingly,