Sammy Miller Motor Cycle Museum

Distance: 4 miles. The museum houses the finest collection of fully restored motorcycles in Europe, including factory racers and exotic prototypes, plus memorabilia spanning 7 decades of motorcycling for sport and for pleasure. There are over 400 rare and classic motorcycles on display in four galleries.

The number of bikes in the museum continues to expand (as does the size of the Museum) with new exhibits from a variety of sources. We restore new projects, which continue to surface, and display worthy machines restored by local enthusiasts as well. We also occasionally purchase interesting motorcycles, and our latest acquisition, a Douglas Dragonfly which is an excellent example of how inventive the smaller British manufacturers could be while working within a limited budget.

Completed restorations include the fascinating and unique Haythorn; a home built machine with an overhead camshaft, oil cooled, four-cylinder engine, and a novel two-speed transmission utilising two different chain drives to the rear wheel. This is the second of two motorcycles made by John Haythorn who was a Scottish automotive engineer working for a supercharger manufacturer. Its development ceased when he was transferred to war work in 1940, but it was already a useable machine that had been featured in the motorcycling press. The Museum’s re-creation of the Haythorn purrs along beautifully and shows just how advanced it was. It was featured in the May issue of Classic Motor Cycle Magazine.

Other exceptional machines restored during 2007 include a TWN Cornet donated by a local enthusiast. The TWN was made in Germany where the company was formed as an off-shoot of the British Triumph company (TWN stands for Triumph Werke Nurnberg) at the start of the twentieth century. The companies split in the 1920s, and Triumph-Nurnberg went on to develop fascinating lightweights before collapsing in 1957. Our machine was made shortly before the factory’s end, and is a "split-single" with two pistons working in parallel under a common combustion chamber. The result is smooth running with no misfiring on small throttle openings, and torque and economy rivalling that of a four-stroke. Remarkably the Cornet has no kick starter as the manufacturers had complete faith in the Noris electric starter; and it still works!

Sammy Miller MBE is a legend in his own lifetime.

• In 1951 he made his competition debut at the age of 16
• Sammy Miller is eleven times British Champion and has won the European (World) Champion twice
• He is a winner of over 1300 trials, 9 gold medals and the international six days