Author: Dave Crofts
Published by: D W M Crofts, The Paddock, Bell Lane, Weston, Newark, Nottinghamshire NG23 6TW
Tel.: 01636 822004
E-mail: [email protected]
Also available from: Amazon.
Softback, 210 x 295mm (portrait); 118 pages with over 150 pictures and illustrations.
ISBN 978-1-326-74957-6
£14.50 including UK postage and packing.
When pioneer motorcycle manufacturers are discussed and compared, it is unlikely that the Nottingham firm of Campion is included or indeed remembered. This is unfortunate, because Campion – successful engineer and cycle maker – really was a pioneers, making its first motorcycle, using their own engine, in 1899.
The story began with William Campion in the 1860s. He built textile machinery and ran a mill in Nottingham’s labyrinthine Lace Market. By the 1870s, the bicycle craze was established in England and saw the production of the first Campion cycles – at their peak, they were producing 400 bicycles a week.
Campion links to Thomas Humber and Harry Curry are explored, along with other notable characters of the period. As motorcycle design evolved, Minerva, Blackburne and JAP engines were fitted by Campion, powering also their range of forecars and light cars.
Read more in the May issue of TCM – on sale now!
