The Grindley Sporting Comes Home – We Went to Find Shropshire’s Forgotten Motorcycle

You Could Almost Walk Straight Past It

In a warehouse adjoining the café at the Grocott Heritage Centre in Prees sits an eclectic collection of Britain's mechanical past. Lorries share the building with cars and motorcycles, and somehow even a steam roller has found its way inside. It isn't a pristine corporate museum where every exhibit sits beneath theatrical lighting; it feels more like somebody has gathered together interesting pieces of our motoring history because they deserve somewhere to survive.

But we'd come looking for one motorcycle in particular.

Standing on a blue-covered plinth behind VIP ropes was a beautifully presented black motorcycle, polished metal catching the October sunlight and two words picked out proudly on its tank: Grindley Sporting. There was no revolving platform, dramatic lighting or grand announcement explaining the importance of what stood before us. In fact, it sat rather unassumingly in the corner of the warehouse. Unless you knew what you were looking for, it would have been remarkably easy to admire it as another beautifully preserved old motorcycle and continue walking.

Except this isn't simply another shiny old bike. It was built here, and more than a century later it has come home.

The 1923 Grindley Sporting Returns to Prees

The motorcycle is a 1923 Grindley Sporting, built by Billy Grindley at his garage in Shrewsbury Street, Prees, Shropshire. Today it forms part of the collection of the National Motorcycle Museum in Solihull, but for October it has been loaned back to the village where its story began 103 years ago. The temporary return means people can see this remarkably rare machine only a short distance from the place where it was originally created.

That makes this homecoming rather special because Billy Grindley wasn't presiding over an enormous motorcycle factory employing thousands of workers. This was motorcycle manufacture on an altogether more personal scale. Contemporary reports surrounding the bike's return suggest Grindley produced only around 25 to 30 motorcycles, built to his own specifications from his garage in Prees.

We tend to tell the history of Britain's motorcycle industry through names such as BSA, Triumph, Norton and Royal Enfield. They gave us the great factories, production lines and motorcycles leaving the gates in their thousands. Yet scattered around Britain were people like Billy Grindley: engineers, mechanics and enthusiasts working from relatively tiny premises and creating motorcycles because they believed they could build something worthwhile.

Grindley's story is British motorcycle history at its most intimate.

Before Selling Them, He Proved One Worked

There was something wonderfully straightforward about Billy Grindley's approach to demonstrating his motorcycle. In 1922, he reportedly rode his original 250cc Grindley Sports Model in a six-day long-distance trial to demonstrate its reliability. Only afterwards did he begin producing motorcycles for customers on a small scale. Accounts surrounding the homecoming put the selling price at £75, with Grindley continuing to make motorcycles until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939.

There is a refreshing simplicity to that approach. Build a motorcycle, ride it for six days and, if both motorcycle and rider survive the experience, perhaps you've got something worth selling. Marketing departments have become considerably larger since then.

But Grindley's garage wasn't simply somewhere motorcycles were assembled and repaired. It appears to have become part workshop, part meeting place and part unofficial motorcycle club. Harry Copnall, one of the people instrumental in bringing the motorcycle back to Prees, has recalled as many as 20 or 30 motorcyclists gathering at Grindley's garage at weekends.

Suddenly the old black motorcycle sitting quietly on its plinth begins to represent something much bigger than the sum of its mechanical parts.

A Village Garage That Created Motorcyclists

Harry Copnall's connection with the Grindley family gives the story its human heart. From around the age of ten during the 1950s, he spent much of his time around the Grindley garage. He later described Billy Grindley as being like a second father and credited those formative years with nurturing his lifelong interest in motorcycles and motorcycle sport.

That struck a chord with us because motorcycling has always been about considerably more than machinery. Someone shows you how an engine works. Someone takes you to your first race meeting. Someone lets you hang around a workshop when perhaps you're technically more nuisance than help. Something sticks, and decades later motorcycles are still part of your life.

For Harry, that childhood connection with the Grindley garage never disappeared. Billy's sons Alan and Jack also carried the family name into competition, enjoying success in scrambling and grasstrack. Jack subsequently progressed into road racing and competed at the Isle of Man TT during the 1950s and 1960s.

The photographs displayed beside the motorcycle at Prees bring some of that history back to life. There are images of Grindley motorcycles being raced on Southport Sands, pictures of the family and photographs from later competition. They're glimpses into a period when motorcycle sport could begin with a few people gathering around a village garage and potentially lead much further.

Looking at the Grindley Sporting Today

Up close, it is difficult to believe we're looking at a motorcycle built in 1923. The black paintwork is immaculate, the bright metal gleams and the exposed mechanical components look almost jewel-like against the dark frame and tank. It presents as something approaching a concours motorcycle rather than a century-old survivor simply dragged from the back of a shed.

Yet looking closely also raises questions. Comparing the motorcycle standing before us with some of the historic photographs surrounding it, there appear to be subtle differences. The exhaust arrangement, handlebars and engine cooling details, in particular, invite closer inspection. Perhaps components were altered during the motorcycle's working life, perhaps it has undergone a comprehensive restoration, or perhaps its present specification represents a particular point in its history.

We simply don't know.

There was no detailed technical information displayed beside the motorcycle explaining its restoration history and nobody available during our visit who could answer those questions. Rather than speculate, we'll leave them unanswered. A motorcycle that has survived for 103 years is entitled to retain a few mysteries.

A Small Plaque With Another Story to Tell

Beside the Grindley stood another object that caught our attention. It was a small racing plaque, its lettering now sufficiently faint that deciphering it required a fair amount of squinting. As best we could make out, the inscription appears to read "Racing Group – Winners 1949 – Wrexham M.C. – A.J. Grindley."

We wouldn't claim that interpretation as definitive without supporting documentation, but its position beside photographs documenting the Grindley family's involvement in motorcycle competition makes it another intriguing fragment of the story. Was it won by Alan Grindley? What was the event? Which motorcycle was being ridden?

Perhaps somebody reading this knows.

That's one of the pleasures of motorcycle history. It isn't always presented as a completed book with every date, name and specification neatly recorded. Occasionally you discover a loose page and somebody else holds the next one.

The Motorcycle That Almost Became a Retirement Present

There is another wonderful twist in the Grindley Sporting's journey home. Harry Copnall eventually worked as fleet engineer for Grocontinental in nearby Whitchurch. When he retired, company owner Ray Grocott knew about Harry's lifelong affection for the Grindley and reportedly attempted to buy the motorcycle for him as a retirement present. Unfortunately, the machine wasn't available.

The motorcycle subsequently entered the National Motorcycle Museum collection, reportedly after changing hands for a believed £12,000. Years later, Harry and fellow Prees resident Gerald Dakin visited the museum to see the motorcycle again. Conversations with museum staff began a chain of events which ultimately resulted in permission being granted for the Grindley Sporting to return temporarily to the village.

There is something rather satisfying about that circle. The motorcycle Harry couldn't have as a retirement present has eventually returned to the community where both their stories began.

More Than an Old Motorcycle

Perhaps that's why the understated way the Grindley Sporting is displayed actually feels appropriate. We initially expected something grander. After all, this is a motorcycle more than a century old, built locally by a man whose tiny production run means surviving examples are inevitably something special.

Yet there it stands, quietly in the corner.

And perhaps that's exactly where its charm lies.

Billy Grindley wasn't building motorcycles in some enormous industrial complex. He was building them in a village garage in Shrewsbury Street. Motorcyclists gathered there at weekends, a young lad hung around the workshop and developed a fascination that stayed with him for the rest of his life, Billy's sons went racing, and the motorcycles eventually travelled away.

More than a century after this particular machine was constructed, people who remembered what the Grindley name meant helped bring one back.

That's motorcycle heritage. It isn't simply engine capacities, specifications, auction values or polished metal. It's people, places and memories, with a motorcycle running through the middle connecting one generation to another.

If You Want to See It, Don't Leave It Too Long

The Grindley Sporting is only temporarily back in Prees. The exhibition at the Grocott Heritage Centre runs until 30 October 2026, after which this rare piece of Shropshire motorcycle history is expected to return to the National Motorcycle Museum collection.

If you're within travelling distance, we'd say it's worth going. Don't expect razzmatazz. Walk through the collection, find the black motorcycle sitting quietly on its blue plinth and spend a few minutes looking properly.

Because you're not simply looking at a beautifully presented motorcycle from 1923. You're looking at something one man built in a village garage, part of a story that subsequently touched generations of local motorcyclists.

The remarkable thing isn't simply that the Grindley Sporting has come home.

It's that 103 years later, it's still here to make the journey.

Motorbike Mad visited the Grocott Heritage Centre in Prees on 6 October 2026. Observations about the motorcycle and its display are from our own visit; historical details have been checked against reporting surrounding the motorcycle's return.