Nostalgia: A look at Huddersfield's Scooter scene over the years - pictures

Sep 15 2009 By Huddersfield Examiner

THE first scooters, most of them a uniform grey, started appearing on Huddersfield’s streets in 1954.

The suppliers, not surprisingly, were motorcycle dealers who at first treated them as something of a nuisance, recalls club historian Eric Broadbent. Scooter riders tended not to be mechanically minded and at first needed more help in keeping their machines running.

Almost all of these first scooters were two-stroke engines which used a mixture of oil and petrol. Too much oil and the plugs clogged up. Kick-starting just made the problem worse. The scooter riders needed somewhere to get informal and mutual advice and help was available.

The Huddersfield and District Lambretta Club was formed in 1955 at the Plough Inn on Westgate with Geoff Turner, of Fartown, as its secretary.The same venue as saw the formation of Huddersfield Choral Society.

Within months, owners of other machines were asking if they could join so the club was renamed Huddersfield Scooter Club.

The club’s headquarters moved to a basement room at the United Commercial Travellers’ Club almost opposite Earnshaws motorcycles at Longroyd Bridge and members met every Tuesday evening with club runs and rallies on Sundays.

Earnshaws were Vespa agents and Arnold Moore supplied Lambrettas in those early days.

ERIC Broadbent was born in 1929 and lived in Golcar until 1959. He worked on Huddersfield Insurance Committee before the NHS was formed in 1948, then worked in health service management in Dewsbury.