History

HOW IT ALL BEGAN Percy Radford
Percy Radford’s 1940s atmospheric impression of how The Bristol Motor Cycle Club may have been formed one evening in 1911 by a group of motorcycle enthusiasts. Entertaining though it undoubtedly is, it has little basis in fact, and is let down by at least one, quite major, factual inaccuracy: the “Light Car” part of the name was added in 1922!

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE BRISTOL MC&LCC Jack Ashby (1957)
Jack Ashby’s more reliable account takes the story a little further, covering events at Naish Hill, Weston-Super-Mare, Lulsgate, Whitchurch and Castle Combe.

THE STORY OF THE ALLEN TRIAL Carlie Hart (1999)
Written by one of the present organisers of this prestigious event, it tells the story from its inception to the present day.

FACTS ABOUT CASTLE COMBE
(from the MSA Wheels! supplement in the circuit’s 50th anniversary year)

BRISTOL MOTOR CLUB  AT CASTLE COMBE
by Circuit Archivist Pete Stowe, extracted from the definitive history of the circuit.

25 YEARS OF WISCOMBE 5-CLUBS Dick Mayo (2001)
How the five clubs came together to organise the annual September Hillclimb weekend.

2011 – CENTENARY CELEBRATION at Castle Combe
2011 – SPIRIT OF THE 60s at Dyrham Park
Celebrating our 100 years in style!

We are grateful to Pete Stowe for sharing the fruits of his research:

The pre-war years: the hillclimb at Backwell Hill House 1935-39, and the one-off 1937 Whitchurch Speed Trials.

The first post-war motorsport event, Naish Hillclimb August 1945, and racing at what is now Bristol Airport, Lulsgate Races 1949-50.

There are now also some additional events from the club’s early history covered in detail (a benefit of lockdowns!), the Trials in 1913-14, the Weston beach speed trials 1913-20, Avonmouth speed trials 1922-23, Fedden trials 1935-38, and the 1959 race meeting at Whitchurch