I met Captain Maurice Seddon after I answered an adverisment for some bicycles he was selling. The ad read "Roadster bicycles, many to choose from" I was given many specific instructions by Seddon, the self procclaimed eccentric on what to do and how to do it when arriving at the property. It was not like any other 'viewing' I had ever incountered. I arrived at the property and was greeted by a 7 foot fence with a tiny bell button on it. I was to press the bell then wait. After pressing the bell a voice appeared from some small holes drilled in this rickety oil covered fencing. "Hello, Hello, can You hear me? Who is there?" The Patric Moore voice crackled from the decaying fencing. "I'm coming very slowly, I do everything slowly and
thoroughly". It took about 20 minutes for him to finaly reach the gate to let me in, 20 minutes waiting, listening to his pack of mongrel dogs barking and barking. All the time inhailing the smells associated with a muddy yard full of gaurd dogs who's droppings were left to their own devices. Upon entering the property, I was greeted by a barrage of turd covered dog paws pumelling me all over the torso and some in the face too! When on that day I first met Maurice he was so cool, like a mad proffessor of a tv film, long crazy hair, mad inventions and piles of machinery everywhere, super nice and welcoming, kind etc. The dogs were eventually fended off by his flailing walking stick and some Geman commands (Seddon is 1/2 German) and we went to look at the 'Roadster bicycles'. I was led to a rusted pile of frames and wheels under a birds muck and dog excrement covered tarpaulin. What a mess! Anyway The Captain gave me the lowdown on all this BSA stuff He collected over the Years, and all the other stuff. The Yard at the property was insane, piles and piles of things collected over 50 or 60 years living there. A total hoarder. To Your left - a mountain of vintage stereo equipment, protected from the elements by a tarpaulin, to Your right - another tarpaulin covering a barrage of vintage BSA parts. Sheds dotted around filled with reel to reel German recording equipment, so many things in huge piles everywhere. Basically his yard consisted of massive piles of hoarded electrical equipment and freezers, seperated by muddy connecting pathways. Quite a spectacle.
Anyway, Captain Maurice Seddon is something of a legend, His life story is quite a read, He was there in the pioneering days of sound recording, he rose to rank of Captain in the Royal Signal Corps, He is known internationally as an inventor, one of his most known inventions was low voltage heated clothing. He has also appeared on numerous tv shows.
To get a good lowdown on Him
go to this article here.
If it wasn't for Seddon I would not have been able to get my BSA together, He helped out a lot and I helped him to shift a lot of his parts. Alas now Seddon resides in a care home and his parts are all gone at auction etc.
He is well known in bike circles for being the eccentric guy with the BSA's covered in heated clothing modificatins, including a car type alternator driven by a belt on the crank. Recently his 2 main B33's went up for auction. I was a bit dissapointed. My dissapointment was quashed when I casually wandered into
Andy Tiernans for a bike fix, and BAM! The captains BSA's right there, running, cleaned up fully working. Well done to Tiernan for getting those. Thought they were lost, only to surface on ebay as nut and bolt breakdowns. So glad to see them out in daylight, running and sorted. Here are some pictures. I will do more than one post on them.
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