Superb Photos from The Bulbarrow Championship Scramble 1965

Cold, miserable winter days mean I can finally put pen-to-paper…

Back in May of this year, some great black and white photos were published in the “Bygone Dorset” group on Facebook. I’m not normally interested in motorcycle scrambling but on this occasion, my interest was piqued : firstly, because they were all taken on Bulbarrow Hill, an area that we often include in our current runs and secondly, because of my own interest in photography, I was amazed at some of the shots and quality of the prints. I hope you enjoy seeing these as much as I did.

Having spoken with Francis Custard, the author of the Facebook post, the photos were taken by Terry Heath at the Bulbarrow Championship Scramble held on Sunday 17th October 1965. Google tells me “The heyday of motorcycle scrambling was primarily during the 1950s and 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom. During this era, it was a major spectator sport, frequently televised, and featured iconic British motorcycles and riders.” and Terry’s photos seem to capture that very well.

Terry is now 89 and Francis is the custodian of Terry’s b&w negatives and has given permission for them to be posted on our website. You may well see some more of Terry’s work on some future posts as he covered various Dorset scrambling events around this time.

There are many more photos from this particular event plus a PDF of the Official Programme in our Archives section of this website. Find it here —> Archive 1965