Pa and His Pa: The Norton Founder, a 1921 Photograph and an Extraordinary Motorcycle Adventure

Though always known as ‘Pa’ Norton, this picture shows the company founder with his own pa. Plus, some famous faces look on. Simon Robinson reports…

The Norton motorcycle company sprang from the Norton Manufacturing Company, which was set up in 1869 by James Lansdowne Norton to manufacture bicycle chains. It was in 1902 that Norton built his first own-branded motorcycle, which used a proprietary 1½hp (147cc) engine from French constructor Clement. The motorcycle business took off and by 1904 Norton was making only motorcycles, and it was in 1907 that the Norton firm’s big break came when a Peugeot-powered Norton took victory in the twin-cylinder class of the inaugural Tourist Trophy race on the Isle of Man. Two years later, in 1909, the 633cc single-cylinder side-valve ‘Big 4’ was launched.

In this 1921 image we see James Lansdowne Norton in the rider’s seat of a Big 4 with his father James in the sidecar. Confusingly, James Jnr was known as ‘Pa’ because he always looked older than his actual years. This is even more confusing when he’s pictured alongside his own father, as James Norton Jnr is the one known as ‘Pa’. The other figures in the image are interesting too. On the far right, with his distinctive handlebar moustache, is Harry Collier. Third from the right (directly behind Norton Snr) is his brother Charlie Collier, the sibling responsible for Matchless motorcycles.

Between them appears to be Billy Wells, the American who moved to England in 1902 and who was on course to win that first twin-cylinder TT in 1907 until a puncture halted his Vindec. With no clue as to the photo’s location, it’s reasonable to assume that, with such motorcycling luminaries present, it was taken at a decent-sized motorcycle event. Interestingly, this image seemingly first appeared in the June 2, 1921, edition of The Motor Cycle, with all other people cropped out, to illustrate Pa Norton’s upcoming travel plans. Originally billed as a ‘World Tour’, the grand ride was due to start in September 1921, with a proposed route from the UK to Durban, then, after some time touring South Africa, moving on to Australia at the end of December, over to New Zealand, and finishing off with a tour around America and Canada in March and April.

The purpose of the tour was so that Pa could see first-hand how the roads of the world compared to those he knew in the United Kingdom. It’s not clear when these plans changed or why, but from post-tour reports it seems that the whole event was shortened to just a tour of South Africa at the end of 1921 into early 1922. It’s also not clear who travelled with him. All reports were made in the first-person by Pa and all photographs were taken by himself.

Only one passenger appears in any of the supplied images and that is his sister-in-law, who was in the sidecar in a photograph taken outside the town hall in Durban in November 1921, presumably at the beginning of his adventure. The machine he was pictured on then was registered ND 761, which at first glance may appear to be a UK machine, registered in Manchester. However, ND was also used in South Africa to denote a machine registered in the Natal province and specifically the Durban district – hence ND.

Pa’s route took him from the start in Durban northwest to Johannesburg (where he stayed for a week) via Newcastle, then southwest, ending in Cape Town (with a stop in Kimberley) some 3017 miles later in early January 1922, without the use of any trains or other transport. Encountering heavy floods, which saw muddy roads engulf the machine up to its axles, and some exotic animals on his tour, he encountered no more serious mechanical misadventures than a detached sidecar. Which sounds quite serious to me, but he was able to shore it up with what he was carrying to complete that day’s riding and, other than a few broken spokes, a replacement valve and some punctures reported along the way, the machine ran faultlessly.

What is slightly strange is that in the photos he submitted of his travels he shows two different registrations; the ND 761 bike outside the town hall in Durban mentioned earlier and what looks to be NP 700 in the pictures of the machine in muddy situations. In one case, the machine is covered with curious monkeys. It’s fair to assume this latter machine was the one on which he actually undertook the journey.

An NP registration would be from Newcastle (South Africa), which was on his route, so one has to reckon the ND-registered bike was either a promotional tool used (as it’s fully bedecked in lights, screens on the sidecar and all bells and whistles) or this ND machine was switched to the NP-registered one when he reached Newcastle for some reason he doesn’t mention. The NP machine appears to be more of a stripped-out, basic, utilitarian spec machine. The Big 4 – which was Pa’s personal favourite model – went on to be one of Norton’s most long-lived variants, continuing until 1954 with updates, including a slight capacity reduction achieved by shortening the 120mm stroke to 113mm. Poor Pa Norton died in 1925, aged only in his mid-50s.