Originally Posted by
VALE BOY
Hi Tone, A week last Thursday, I drove down to Silloth, the most north westerly town in England on the Solway Firth to collect a nice .22 Webley Xocet rifle and found it to be a really attractive and interesting wee former Victorian Spa town with a load of local history. It used to have an airfield that was a base for Canadian and American servicemen during WW2.
I was told a story by Tony, the BBS vendor of the Webley, if that the town’s principal church on the cobblestoned Criffel Street at front of the town, named after the mountain in Dumfries and Galloway on the opposite side of the Solway, was built without its steeple being erected...So for some reason the powers that be decreed it should be completed just when WW2 broke out in 1939. So the church had scaffolding surrounding it for the duration of the war, effectively having a ‘scaffolding steeple’ as work was discontinued for obvious reasons. However, with the influx of the airmen who began to have ‘an impact’ on the local fair maidens....in due course, the scaffolding steeple’s austere structure was being enhanced by the attachment of the local girls’ undergarments obtained as ‘trophies’ by the Yanks and Canadians, flapping in the breeze!
Later that evening after the best Fish and Chips I’ve ever had the good fortune to experience, courtesy of the local chippy, I took a wee wander round the town (which only has a handful of really wide tree-lined streets and discovered a great little Motorcycle Museum which as I discovered the following morning when it was open that was a former grocery corner shop belonging to the proprietor’s mum.
Continuing my walk that evening I went into the RAF club on the front, one of only 3 pubs left in the town when formerly there was more than a dozen in its holiday resort heyday. Extremely good pints of Guinness at 3 quid a pint cannae be bad and it also gave me the chance to converse with some of the locals albeit maintaining social distancing as is the requirement these days. Opposite me was an elderly lady called Joan who came to Silloth in 1958 from Ellon near Aberdeen to work on the fish gutting back in those days when Silloth, and nearby Maryport (looking a bit sad these days) Workington and Whitehaven all had busy fishing fleets. She’d married a local fella and her daughter and son in law were sitting next me at the adjacent table as it turned out. He was an interesting character who owns the tricked up Saab 9-5 estate car which I’d seen and heard going past me earlier in the evening...
so that got the conversation round to cars and motorbikes and I knew that Silloth airfield had been converted into a Motorcycle Racing Circuit in the 50’s I believe. In fact a biking pal of mine, Davy Johnston, still holds the lap record for production bikes set on an 840cc Rickman Honda back in 1978 and the circuit closed down in 1979! At this point of the conversation in came a local character called Ed who must be nearing 80 who still rides motorbikes (750 Honda Four) and in joining in the craic he told that he moors a 35 foot yacht in nearby Maryport that up to this summer, he sails to the Isle of Man twice annually for the TT and the Classic Manx races. So right away we struck up a guid rapport and on me telling him that I’ve got sailing experience on yachts and sailing dingys of all sizes he invited me to crew if I’m ever back down that way.... So who knows, maybe next year I’ll maybe be sailing on a yacht ⛵️ to the Isle of Man!
On the Friday morning I visited the wee Silloth Motorcycle Museum with some great examples of Aermacchi, Honda, Manx Norton, Suzuki, racing bikes and several others crammed in with a load of racing photographs, memorabilia and good quality merchandise. It was fascinating meeting the proprietor, Jim Snaith, who is former racer with several championship wins on short circuits as well as competing at the TT and the Manx on the Isle of Man. It transpired that we shared a lot of mutual friends and acquaintances who had been competitors and others involved in that wonderful sport. A great way to spend a whole morning whilst the rain was pishing down outside. Jim told me that it’s still a popular holiday location as there’s something like 5 caravan and camping sites in the vicinity. It’s quite often a weekend ride out location for bikers and also if it hadn’t been for this Bastard Corona virus the annual Beer and Music Festival would have been taking place that very weekend! Hopefully it’ll be back on go next year along with a plethora of other events that sadly have fallen by the wayside this year.
So there you have it... you did ask!...all due to picking up an old Webley!
Btw, It’s worth going to Silloth just for the Fish Suppers, great Guinness and Motorcycle Museum alone!