The Forncett Bikers

At the start of the twentieth century rural life changed significantly and the peace and quiet of Forncett was interrupted by the sound of the internal combustion engine. On farms the first tractors made an appearance, although horse power remained the dominant force until after the second war. On the roads and lanes, the first cars could be seen, and I wrote about that in an article last year. However, this was also the time of the first motorbikes and the person in Forncett who had a particular love affair with this new mode of transport was Marjorie Thurston at Church Farm in Low Road.

A biker gathering at Church Farm – Dick Sutton and Marjorie Thurston, far right 

John and Edith Thurston took over Church Farm around 1920. Their son, John Warren Thurston, had drowned in 1915, aged 24, when he was a passenger on the Lusitania, which was sunk by a German submarine off Ireland. So, their daughter, Marjorie (born 1899) became an only child, and she appears to have been introduced to motorbikes by a man who became a close friend of the family and eventually Marjorie's partner.

Richard (Dick) Sutton, who lived in Norwich, was born in 1891 and was the same age as John Warren Thurston. So, they may well have attended the same school in Norwich. Dick became a motor engineer working for Duff Morgan and in the 1920s he set up his own motorbike business in Elm Hill. 

Marjorie, who was a keen and competent photographer, included in her extensive photograph collection numerous different motorbikes, many of which she rode. There were clearly frequent "biker gatherings" at Church Farm. So, Marjorie and her biker friends could not possibly have gone unnoticed, or unheard, and they must have caused significant interest and comment amongst the residents of Forncett ! 

The photographs of motorbikes date from around 1915 to 1925 and a selection of these are shown below.

In later years Dick and Marjorie seem to have transferred their interests to cars. Dick continued to work as a motor engineer in Norwich, where he lived at 110 Chapel Field Road. However, during heavy bombing raids on Norwich in 1942, Dick is though to have suffered devastating shell shock from which he never recovered. After Marjorie's father died, Dick moved to Church Farm where he lived until his death in 1981.

With many thanks to Debbie Sutton for helpful discussions and the photographs from Marjorie's collection.