More hedge-dweller information

With reference to the letter from Rodney Wildsmith in June 2020’s OBM ‘Hedge-dwelling Scott… where are UU?’

Rodney also contacted the Scott Owners’ Club with the same inquiry and we were able to put together some historical information on this remarkable machine. I attach a brief summary in the hope it will be of interest to readers. Unfortunately, its current whereabouts are not known to the club.

As a result of this inquiry, Rodney and I had a long chat, and although he is now in North Yorkshire and I am just north of London, it turned out we went to the same Harrow junior school in the 1950s (no, not THAT school!) at about the same time. Amazing… a small world.

Thanks for a great magazine, keep up the good work:

“Thanks to guidance from helpful fellow Scott Owners’ Club officials we are pleased to be able to respond and add a few details to this interesting inquiry. In the early 1960s and in the Scott world this was a famous bike! It belonged to arch Scott enthusiast, the late Arthur Fogg, and has featured in magazine articles and books.

The registration number is UU 906, and Arthur purchased it in 1947 from none other than the great motoring enthusiast Denis S ‘Jenks’ Jenkinson. Jenks was the continental correspondent for Motor Sport who had famously partnered Eric Oliver to become three time world sidecar champion and Stirling Moss in the 1955 Mille Miglia.

The bike was originally a 1929 TT Replica which Arthur much desired as he knew from experience it had an exceptional turn of speed. Unfortunately Jenks wrecked the engine at the Brighton Speed Trials, and in this condition it was passed on to Arthur.

The Scott was reborn several times during the late 1940s and early 50s with what spares were available, and by Arthur’s enthusiasm and his capable hands.

With no respect to originality, the engine was switched several times between short-/long-stroke and blind/detachable head. The Scott was re-enamelled, Brampton girders and a later Shipley twin front brake with a Vincent type balancer.

At one stage a sidecar was constructed from a chopped about Milford chassis fitted with an all-Dural semi-stressed skin body, and fitted to the Scott to allow Arthur to attend the Manx with his new wife. 

Development continued into the late 1950s around family life and a demanding job, and included a swinging arm conversion by Ted Wichman of Sale, but this was never used. A better idea had occurred to Arthur, which was to send the frame to his friends at Phelon and Moore for the fitting of Panther wheels and front and rear forks.

Other modifications were undertaken, many small components replaced with light alloy. Footrest modification precluded the fitting of a kick start, and the machine was never fitted with lights, though it did have a rev counter driven from the magneto sprocket. It was at this stage of development when Rodney came across it in the Isle of Man.

Arthur Fogg was first to acknowledge his ‘cannibalism’ of the machine would offend the purist, but at the same time it was generally agreed it was one of the best looking Scotts of the era.

Writing in the Scott Owners’ Club magazine in 1963 Arthur claimed he would never part with it, even when he became unable to manage the bump start.

Unfortunately the club has lost track of this machine, and the current owner is not known. It was last taxed in 2007-8, and a new V5C was issued in 2011, presumably because of a change of address. 

However, the owners’ club has extensive records of about 2700 Scott machines, so if readers have one tucked away let our registrar, Ian Parsons, know about it. Incidentally, Ian is registered with the DVLA and is able to help club members and non-members with their application for Scott registration. 

Richard Tann, membership,
The Scott Owners’ Club

Read more Letters, Opinion, News and Features at www.oldbikemart.co.uk and in the November 2020 issue of Old Bike Mart – on sale now!