PEOPLE
The Jefferies Dynasty, at least as far as motorcycling goes, reaches back almost to the advent of the motorcycle itself. David Jefferies’ great grandfather, Joseph, was a picture framer by trade but was also something of a visionary as far as motorised vehicles went. In 1901, he and some like-minded friends formed the Ross Motor and Cycle Company in Shipley's old steam tram shed near the Ross Hotel.
When that partnership eventually floundered, Joseph broke away and started his own business nearby, repairing cars, motorcycles, and bicycles.
“My grandpa Joe was a bit of a motor car pioneer and entrepreneur,” Tony Jefferies explained before his untimely death in 2021. “He and a couple of mates went to France and bought a De Dion Bouton (a French car manufactured between 1883 and1932) and they used it as an ambulance during the First World War to carry the wounded from the train station to the hospital, which was next door to Joe’s business.
“He couldn’t fight in the war because of his peg leg (sustained in a footballing accident) but he reckoned that, by the end of the war, he had covered 100,000 miles in that car between Shipley and Bradford. When you think of the state of the roads back then – many of the local streets were cobbled – and the fact that the car had solid tyres, it was some going. I know what it’s like on cobbled streets with solid tyres from being in a wheelchair, and it’s
