A retired RAF navigator is selling his treasured Norton to help fund the purchase, on behalf of his community, of a church built by one of his ancestors.
The old United Reformed Church in Stoke-sub-Hamdon, Somerset, was built by Richard Southcombe in 1866. Now ex-flyer Bill Southcombe is a trustee of the charity set up to save the place of worship and his Norton will be sold at auction by H&H Classics on 7 April at the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham. It is estimated to sell for £25,000 to £27,000. He has already donated the value of two bikes in his collection.
“If we fail to buy the church it will be auctioned by the Synod, to developers probably, or left to decay,” said Southcombe, pictured on the right in the lower picture. “It was built by my ancestor and is now grade two listed and in very good condition. It was given to the URC Synod in 2016 by the Elders and if we are to save it we must pay the Synod this year, 2020.”
Hamdon Community Arts Project (HCAP) has been founded to buy back the building for £100,000, half its market price, as a community sale. HCAP is registered as a charity. Currently the church houses a playgroup founded in 1974, a local band founded in 1945 and a charity shop. The church has an exquisite 900 pipe organ donated by Julia Southcombe in 1875 which is still in perfect condition. HCAP organises plays, recitals, music competitions, and the performance of Handel’s Messiah.
The Business Plan for HCAP has earned parish and Somerset County Council support. Besides the £100,000 needed to secure the church a further £100,000 is needed to convert it.
Bill Southcombe joined RAF as a navigator in 1961.
Mike Davis of H&H Classics said: “Bill Southcombe’s 1930 Norton is one of the very first Arthur Carol designed CS1 Nortons. It left the Norton works on 20 December, 1930, sold to Mr H G Turner (possibly for racing) as it was not registered for road use until 1934.
Purchased in about 1969 in a dismantled state by the current vender, the machine was untouched and kept in boxes due to moving around the country for RAF duties.
Restoration started in 2003 on his retirement. The engine was restored by well-known Brooklands tuner Francis Beart’s mechanic Keith Manning. There is a large file with various photos, documents for work carried out on the bike.”