Nostalgia: A look at Huddersfield's Scooter scene over the years - pictures
Sep 15 2009 By Huddersfield Examiner
He moved to West Bromwich in 1962, married in 1969 and now lives in Halesowen in the West Midlands. Scooters aside, he has always been keen on photography, particularly photographic history – he’s a licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society (LRPS) and is an affiliate of the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain (APAGB) and is secretary of Dudley Camera Club.
A number of the photographs on these pages are with kind permission from Eric’s recently published history of Huddersfield Scooter Club, a group known informally in the early days as The Luddites.
The Examiner published a picture of a charity and publicity stunt the scooter club tried in 1960. The idea was to ride a Lambretta without stopping the engine for seven days and seven nights.
This task fell to Eric, as the pictures on this page show.
This publication sparked an inquiry from two present-day scooter riders, Alison and Mark Scott. Could Eric provide them with a potted history of the club from its inception?
"I did put something together and it kept growing," said Eric. "So I decided to illustrate the copy and again it grew until I had a 58-page booklet with 79 photographs plus copies of posters, magazines, badges and pennants."
THE original Luddites wrecked new weaving machines. It’s hoped the new Luddites – members of Huddersfield Scooter Club in its early days – didn’t wreck too many of their own two-wheeled machines.
They were tough, the early Lambrettas, Vespas, Heinkels and Moto Rumis. Luddites used to take them on moorland trials, drive them for seven days without switching the engine off and run them through deep water.
Eric Broadbent, one of the early members, recorded all these activities, and some of the social events. Eric tested his Lambretta to extremes by taking it fully laden over three alpine passes, the Julier, Bernina and St Gotthard, on a trip to Europe, a total climb of 6,721 metres.
