AJS

Back in those distant days a Northampton man acquired an AJS motorcycle with a sidecar, possibly for travelling to work or conveying his family hither and thither. The house was located in Duston, then a village outside Northampton. WWII inevitably arrived and the man decided to construct an air raid shelter and began digging a very deep hole, so deep, in fact, that the war had ended before it was finished. Not wishing to waste a perfectly serviceable hole and all that effort the man decided to fill it with rubbish which, sadly included the AJS and sidecar. Continue forward to 1978 and the hose is demolished by a gas explosion, hopefully whilst unoccupied, and the opportunity was taken to incorporate the garden into an adjoining children’s playing field. The garden also would have included the former deep hole.

The following year the Northampton VMCC got wind that a motorcycle was buried in the field and obtained permission to conduct a search. A metal detector revealed the location of the bike and section members spend six hours excavating the site with shovels and a digger to reveal the remains of the AJS. They had unearthed a 7hp, 800cc v-twin model from 1920 – 1924 which was subsequently identified as a D2 model. The then chairman of the section, Peter Beaney, said “the machine was probably restorable to running condition.” There appears to have been no sign or mention of the sidecar or perhaps it was too badly decayed to justify restoration.

Mr Beaney was quite correct and as the photographs demonstrate it is in excellent condition due to the efforts of Northampton VMCC and can, with a great deal of justification, be classed as a Northampton Motorcycle. The AJS is kept in fine fettle by Chris Towell who takes it out on the Banbury Run. It is also available for use by members who want to try the delights of riding a machine from the 1920s.