British Motorcycle Charitable Trust facts for kids

The British Motorcycle Charitable Trust (BMCT) is a special charity that helps save and fix old British motorcycles. It was started in 1979. The Trust wants to protect these amazing machines and let people see them. They do this by working with museums and holding events about motorcycle history.

The BMCT also helps schools, clubs, and people who love motorcycles. They keep lots of information about British motorcycles too.

How the Trust Gets Money

The Trust gets money from people who donate and from members who pay a subscription. They also receive money from motorcycle fans who leave gifts in their wills. This money is used to save rare British motorcycles and to help keep the history of British motorcycle engineering alive in the UK.

Who Runs the Trust?

The people who run the Trust are called Trustees. They are all volunteers who love motorcycles and have different skills in business. The current leader of the Trustees is Ian Walden, who has an OBE award.

Museums They Work With

From 1979 to 1995, the Trust helped create the National Motorcycle Museum (UK) in Solihull. Later, it was taken over by a private company.

Today, the BMCT works with many museums across the UK. These museums display rare British motorcycles. If you are a member of the Trust, you can get a discount to visit these places:

• Black Country Living Museum
• Brooklands Museum
• Coventry Transport Museum
• Haynes International Motor Museum
• The Tank Museum
• National Motor Museum, Beaulieu
• Sammy Miller Motorcycle Museum
• Dover Transport Museum
• Stroud Museum in the Park
• Folk of Gloucester Museum
• Jet Age Museum
• Norton Collection Museum
• Grampian Transport Museum
• Internal Fire Museum of Power
• Derby Museum of Making
• Isle of Man Motor Museum
• Royal Engineers Museum

The Trust also supports the Manx National Heritage museum. They have given money to help save old British motorcycles that raced in famous events like the TT and MGP.

In 2001, the Black Country Living Museum got money from the BMCT and another fund to buy the Marston Collection of motorcycles. These bikes were made in Wolverhampton. The collection included a very rare 1918 Sunbeam military motorcycle found in France. The museum also used the money to build a pretend motorcycle shop from the 1930s, filled with old bikes and cool items.

Recently, the Trust helped pay for a fantastic new exhibit called "Life on Two Wheels" at the Haynes Motor Museum in Somerset. Also, in 2014, the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu opened a completely new motorcycle display, thanks to a £75,000 grant from the BMCT.

Amazing Motorcycles They Own

The British Motorcycle Charitable Trust owns a collection of very rare British motorcycles. They lend these bikes to different museums so people can see them. Some of these cool bikes include:

• a 1911 BSA 3.5 HP
• a Scott Flying Squirrel
• a 1923 Beardmore Precision
• a 1937 Brough Superior SS80

The Trust recently bought the very last working Triumph Bandit and loaned it to the Grampian Transport Museum. They also got a rare Carfield 'Baby' from 1923. This bike has a small 1.5 HP Villiers engine and won a Bronze Medal in the Scottish Six Days Trial, riding over 1,000 miles in tough conditions!

The Trust also helped the Coventry Transport Museum fix up a 1936 Triumph Tiger 80. In 2015, they saved a unique Matchless Vickers machine gun outfit from World War I. The BMCT bought it and arranged for it to be shown at the Tank Museum in Dorset.

In 2013, the BMCT bought the Spalding Collection. This collection has an example of every type of British motor scooter made between 1946 and 1962. An exhibit of these scooters, called the British Scooter Collection, opened in 2016 at the Haynes International Motor Museum. It later moved to the Isle of Man Motor Museum in 2021.

Helping with Education

The Trust helps pay for research and educational projects about the British motorcycle industry. For example, they funded staff at the Coventry Transport Museum to write a history of how motorcycles were made in Coventry.

The Trust also helped create the Resource Centre at Haynes International Motor Museum. Here, information and books about British motorcycles are being put into digital form. This helps motorcycle fans and people who restore bikes all over the world.