Amongst the vast collection of cars, commercials, bicycles and motor-cycles at The Coventry Road Transport Museum is a 1928 Rudge Dirt Track Special, kindly loaned to the museum by Mr D McMahon. This was one of the first dirt-track machines built by the Rudge-Whitworth Co of Coventry. The display is rather awkward to photograph, but here is my best selection

I was fortunate enough to inherit a small autograph book which contained the signatures of "some speedway riders" - although there are only a handful, I was particularly excited to find that it included the autograph of Tom Farndon as a Coventry rider in 1930 - someone whose story has always fascinated me since my late father used to mention him

Stuart Rochford has kindly sent me some scans of autographed photographs from the 1930's which I am pleased to add to this site

Photos taken on a visit to St Paul's Cemetery, Holbrook Lane, Coventry on 21 Jan 2007, to view the gravestone of Tom Farndon, the famous speedway son of Coventry, who died in 1935 after a track crash at New Cross

Having read Tony McDonald's book "Tragedy", about the life and death of Kenny Carter, I took the opportunity whilst in Yorkshire on 15 Feb 2008 to visit the village of Bradshaw, and to pay my respects to Kenny and Pam. To understand some of the background to the terrible events of 21 May 1986 which are otherwise so hard to imagine, "Tragedy" is an essential and highly recommended read, and one which made a deep and lasting impression on this reader - RIP, Pam and Kenny

Probably the most famous film featuring Speedway Racing is the 1948 Rank production "Once a Jolly Swagman", starring Dirk Bogarde and featuring Bill Owen, Moira Lister and Thora Hird - but it wasn't universally acclaimed as the report in the "Daily Mirror" on 16 Dec 1948 shows

When I started following Speedway in the mid-1960's, I naturally collected the magazines, in particular the weekly "Speedway Star and News" - later, I was always pleased to be able to get hold of older magazines, to see how the sport had changed over the years. The covers of these magazines, a selection of which are here, are fascinating as they show the development, not only of Speedway, but also printing and publishing

Over the years, I've only obtained literally a handful of pre-war speedway programmes - here I've scanned the covers (Coventry, Crystal Palace, Harringay, Stamford Bridge, Wembley, Wimbledon)

Scans of speedway programme covers from Internationals, Test Matches, World League, etc

Scans of programme covers from World, National, Area and Track Championships (individual, pairs, fours)

Scans of programme covers from around the world - Denmark, Sweden, Holland, Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Rhodesia, Australia, New Zealand, United States - many of which are World Championship and Test Match meetings, and including a couple of Long-Track and Ice Speedway programmes

Scans of covers from Special Events - Testimonials and Benefit meetings

Scans of post-war programme covers - Aldershot, Ashington, Barrow, Belle Vue, Berwick, Birmingham, Boston, Bradford, Brafield, Bristol, Canterbury, Cardiff, Castleford, Coatbridge, Coventry

Scans of post-war programme covers - Cowdenbeath, Cradley Heath, Crayford, Crewe, Doncaster, Eastbourne, Edinburgh, Ellesmere Port, Exeter

Scans of post-war programme covers - Glasgow (Hampden Park), Glasgow (White City), Hackney, Halifax, Harringay, Hull (The Boulevard), Ipswich

Scans of post-war programme covers - Kings Lynn, Leicester, Liverpool, Long Eaton (inc Nottingham), Middlesbrough/Teesside (Cleveland Park), Mildenhall, Motherwell, Neath Abbey, Nelson

Scans of post-war programme covers - New Cross, Newcastle, Newport, Newtongrange, Norwich, Oxford, Paisley, Peterborough, Plymouth, Poole, Rayleigh

Scans of post-war programme covers - Reading (Tilehurst and Smallmead), Rochdale, Romford, Rye House, St Austell, Scunthorpe (Quibell Park and Ashby Ville), Sheffield, Stoke (Hanley and Chesterton), Sunderland

Scans of post-war programme covers - Swindon, Tamworth, Walthamstow, Wembley, West Ham, Weymouth, White City (London), Wimbledon, Wolverhampton, Workington, Yarmouth
(note : there is a Wigan programme in the "Championship Programme Covers" collection)

In 1970, I travelled to Poland with Ray Glover's "International Speedway Club" for the World Individual Championship Final, won by Ivan Mauger (New Zealand). This is a collection of memorabilia from the trip in the days when travel to Poland was not as easy or common as it is today. Unfortunately I did not have a camera at the time, but I did purchase some prints from a local photographer after the meeting, and I have included those in this collection

Never throw anything away! - you'll never know when it will come in useful - here's a selection of scans of tickets to speedway meetings I've attended - it's interesting to see how the prices have changed over the years - also, the "programme" one had to buy to attend a meeting on a Sunday in 1970!