Tyne Tees Television began in 1959, broadcast from a disused warehouse in City Road on Newcastle’s historic quayside, transformed into state-of-the-art studios. A quarter of a million viewers watched on the first night. They broadcast from this base for more than 45 years until the studios shut down in 2005. In time, the station aimed to create a portrait of the north-east, “a land of wide skies, bent vowels, saints, footballers, shipyards and an inventive tradition which has produced the...

Tyne Tees Television began in 1959, broadcast from a disused warehouse in City Road on Newcastle’s historic quayside, transformed into state-of-the-art studios. A quarter of a million viewers watched on the first night. They broadcast from this base for more than 45 years until the studios shut down in 2005.

In time, the station aimed to create a portrait of the north-east, “a land of wide skies, bent vowels, saints, footballers, shipyards and an inventive tradition which has produced the finest engineers in England: its landscape swings from wild moorland to industrial cities and back again to the sea-fretted coast of Northumberland, Durham and North Yorkshire” as author Antony Brown eulogizes in his book Tyne Tees Television: the first 20 years, a portrait (1978) “The north-east is as far as you can go from the centres of power in southern England.” Many of the Tyne Tees documentaries sprang from these regional roots.

Mike Neville, a much-loved face of TV news in the north east for more than 40 years who launched his broadcast career with Tyne Tees, once suggested that the launch of Tyne Tees enabled local people to be able to hear local accents and dialects on television where once the BBC’s standard cut-glass pronunciation was the norm. This was particularly true for the various news programmes broadcast by the station over the years, which first consisted of short bulletins and a weekly Friday night programme called North East Roundabout.

This sports magazine item was from the nightly regional news programme called North East Newsview, introduced on 30 March 1964, and recorded the very first Northumbrian Run of the Vintage Motor Cycle Club (VMCC) for solo and sidecar motorcycles, organised by Bill Hume. NEFA gratefully acknowledge the valuable contribution of Members of the Northumbrian Reivers Section of the VMCC who have identified several of the motorcyclists taking part that day and contributed memories of some of the riders.

One rider, Jimmy Steel, ‘remembers the day well. He transported his own bike, a Precision AJ 2413, together with that of Jack Yallop in his father’s Mini pickup. Jimmy says that the weather was very wet! The Precision was first registered in March 1914 and had a 338cc engine. He remembers that the hub clutch broke down during the event because someone had lubricated it with moly slip, which did what it said on the tin. Once home he stripped it and Jack Yallop, an industrial chemist, cleaned them with a strong acid. The plates were hung on the washing line for several days to get rusty for improved grip. The Precision is now owned by a gentleman called Eric Alderson, who had previously owned it. His father sold it, whilst Eric was doing National Service!’

Harold Featherstone, who describes his early enthusiasm for Scott motorcycles in this news feature, was a Newcastle dentist with a practice in Jesmond, and lived in Gosforth.  One of the competitors, Walter Green, was the winner of many concours, the exhibitions or parades of vintage or classic motor vehicles in which prizes are awarded for those in the best or most original condition.

As the first competitor and sidecar sets off, note the Vespa scooter parked to the far left. The sign on the front of the scooter is referencing the Tyneside branch of the Douglas Vespa Club. Members of this club regularly marshalled local VMCC events. The connection was Ernie Richardson who ran the Enfield and Douglas dealership in Hood Street, Newcastle upon Tyne. He was a keen supporter of the VMCC at the time. Douglas was a long-standing British motorcycle manufacturer, based in Bristol, who started manufacturing Vespa scooters under licence in 1951.

The VMCC was founded by Charles Edmond “Titch” Allen OBE (1915-2010) and a band of 38 men who were the enthusiastic owners of motorcycles manufactured before December 1930. The initial impetus was to ‘promote the use and preservation of ‘Vintage’ machines’. The group met up at the Lounge Café, Hog's Back, Guildford, Surrey, on 28 April 1946, travelling from as far afield as Cheshire, Nottinghamshire, Shropshire and Leicestershire. The nationwide organisation is still going strong. And nostalgia is driving up the price of veteran and vintage motorcycles, particularly British motorbike manufacturers like Triumph, Nortons, Scott, BSA and Vincent. Norton had been producing bikes for 122 years including military models and winners for the Isle of Man TT races, until they fell into administration in 2020. Founded in 1898, Norton was one of the last remaining British motorcycle brands.

References:

Thanks to Simon Hadden and members of the Northumbrian Reivers Section of the VMCC for their contributions to this context, 2019

Brown, Antony: Tyne Tees Television: the first 20 years: a portrait (Newcastle upon Tyne: Tyne Tees Television Ltd., 1978)

https://www.vmcc.net/History