The Early Days of the East London &
In the mid
1970s Ken Smith, who had been a section rep’ for an earlier section attempted
to start a regular section meeting at the Green Man public house in Navestockside, near Brentwood in Essex. However it was soon
apparent that there were many more non AJS and Matchless bikes attending than
there were bikes of the marque and it was decided
that instead of becoming a new section of the AJS & Matchless Club that an
entirely new club would be formed and this became The British Owners Club.
An
early meeting at the Green Man before the decision to become The British Owners
Club
Nothing more
was done as regards forming a section in the locality until December of 1981
after Kevin O’Brien had placed the following piece in the November Issue of the
AJS & Matchless Owners Club Jampot magazine after
having previously mentioned the need for the formation of new sections in an
earlier edition of the magazine
“So
now I have had a dig at everyone else’s conscience you had better put my name
on the list. Equally if anyone would be interested in starting an East
London/Essex section why not give me a bell on 01 593 2743”
The
first section notes (below) appeared in January 1982 in this edition of “Jampot”
East London Members in the
area of South Essex or East London who would be interested in Club runs on
their bikes plus an occasional get together for a pint are asked to contact
Kevin O’Brien on 10 593 2743. The inaugural meeting has been held and with a
little more support a suitable local will be chosen for regular meetings. With
a current membership of two (Kevin and Andy, from Rainham),
both singles types, there is an urgent need for at least one other member, a twin
owner, to balance the discussions! We look forward to hearing from you.
Members
bikes outside the “White Bear” public house in Stanford Rivers, at one of the
early meetings of the section. Sadly this place was lost to us when it was
closed and sold. It has now been converted into housing
Subsequent
issues of “Jampot” carried the following notes
showing slow but steady growth in section membership
March 1982 The progress was slow with just three signed up, Me (K O’B), Andy and Frank
and we meet at the White Bear, a very well used watering hole with local
British Iron.
May 1982 Having now had two section meetings we have increased members to six,
new additions being Nick Taylor, Richard Smith and Pete Smith
July 1982 May’s meeting saw a further two faces, Dave from Loughton and Cedric
from Harold Wood, the landlord banishing us to the back room as our helmets
were not well appreciated on the floor of the bar.
August 1982 Another good meeting, with Dave and John arriving for the first time on
their AJ’s. We are growing with each meeting, this
time we were seven.
October 1982 The last meeting saw four riders from the
November 1982 Our first event outside of a club meeting as we attended a charity show
at
The meetings went
from strength to strength throughout 1982 and the following years, continuing
to grow to the healthy number of members that we have today and which saw a
record 45 at the club night of 22nd February 2007, that year being
the year of our 25 years as the
Our thanks go to
Kevin for his initiative in forming the Section back in late 1981/1982
The
1988 Jampot Rally, one of the earlier national events
attended by section members
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