A Brief History Continued
I remember well walking to Margate seafront in the early morning and seeing all the mods sleeping rough under the pier opposite the station entrance where rows upon rows of scooters were parked up. This photograph was taken from just outside the entrance to Margate station and scooters can be seen occupying the whole road.
My earliest recollections of Dover Motor Cycles were when I had my Vespa 152L2. I was having problems with it and, although they were Lambretta dealers, I took my scooter there for repair which was undertaken by Bob Carlton, the mechanic. It would have been at that time that I started mixing with members of the Dover Saints Scooter Club. I always felt a bit out of it being a Vespa owner patronising a Lambretta dealer but it would be another two years before I did something about it.
In 1965 I traded in my 152L2 for my first new scooter, a Vespa 150GL and it was during that year that I left the “Vespa Club of Folkestone” and joined the local scooter club “The Dover Saints.”
It was not long before I was elected Secretary of “The Dover Saints”. I suppose that having chosen to make a career in administration, it was a natural move to take on the job. I had crossed the road by then to work as a junior clerk in the Mayor of Dover’s Office in New Bridge House. I didn’t realise it at the time that this move was to prove extremely useful.
Every Christmas, the Mayor distributed by post to the elderly of Dover, “goodwill vouchers” which local traders would cash in for goods. These vouchers had a face value of 10s (50p to you Christian). It seemed to me that money could be saved if they were delivered by hand and so I arranged with the Mayor for members of the Club to deliver the vouchers on their scooters. Postage amounting to £25 was saved meaning that 50 further vouchers could be delivered. The vouchers were handed to the Club by the Mayor, Alderman John Bushell, at a charity dinner/dance at Dover Town Hall prior to Christmas 1965. Seen collecting the vouchers are, from left to right, Bob Cook, Club run leader, Bill Stupples, Alison Watkins, Bob Cannon, who had recently relinquished the job of Secretary to get married, and me.
