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Tom Farndon


annie

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My grandad was Tom farndon and I have a sash of his which I am not sure what it was won for, can anyone enlightten me. It has a badge of gold wings marked midland wolverhampton speedways ltd and ceramic in the middle with a shield and out of darkness cometh light. Please excuse my ignorance, I was just curious.

 

Thank you in anticipation

 

annie steele nee Farndon

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My grandad was Tom farndon and I have a sash of his which I am not sure what it was won for, can anyone enlightten me.  It has a badge of gold wings marked midland wolverhampton speedways ltd and ceramic in the middle with a shield and out of darkness cometh light. Please excuse my ignorance, I was just curious.

 

Thank you in anticipation

 

annie steele nee Farndon

 

Step up to the plate Norbold!!!!!!!

 

Nice to Hear from you Annie

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Guest Donsking
Step up to the plate Norbold!!!!!!!

 

Nice to Hear from you Annie

 

 

That's just what I was thinking Ray, if anyone will know, Norman will; I'll question him about it later.

 

As it is, hello to a relative of one of the greatest speedway riders to ever grace the sport, welcome along Annie.

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Hi annie

 

Welcome to the Forum. As you will see people are expecting me to answer this because Tom Farndon is my all-time hero. The greatest speedway rider ever in my opinion.

 

He won hundreds of trophies in his time so I am not exactly sure what the trophy is that you have. I'll make some investigations and see if I can find out...unless anyone else knows.

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Welcome Annie.

 

If we can narrow this down a bit, Wolverhampton only ran pre-war from 1928 - 30.

 

Midland Speedways Ltd promoted there early 1929.

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Welcome Annie to the forum.

On the Vintage Forum there is an item about Tom's son riding Cycle Speedway, could you add to this please?

Also anything about Sid who was Tom's brother. I have seen his name mentioned with a Leicester slant somewhere about pre-war days

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:D Hi Annie, in the first instance the person to contact is Mark Sawbridge who has written a book on the history of Wolverhampton Speedway.

 

I will contact Mark, I've no doubt he will be very interested and maybe he has the answer.

 

Tom did ride at Wolverhampton in both 1929-30.

 

As of yet I have not found a reference to Tom and this trophy, but my records are incomplete.

 

There were many many Golden trophies .............this one sounds like the 'Golden winged sash'

 

From you description of this trophy it sounds like a quality item.

 

Are you sure the centre is ceramic ..possibility is, that it is enameled silver. Silver items were also Gilded (Gold plated), have you noticed any assay/Hallmarks, not usually obvious. These would give the date of and the manufacturer. Should there be any such marks I would be interested to have a description, as I have an interest in the silversmiths of Birmingham who made many of theses trophies.

 

Regards

Nigel

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Welcome Annie to the forum.

On the Vintage Forum there is an item about Tom's son riding Cycle Speedway, could you add to this please?

Also anything about Sid who was Tom's brother. I have seen his name mentioned with a Leicester slant somewhere about pre-war days

 

 

 

Sid Farndon did ride at New Cross in the mid-1930s, also probably at Bristol. Post-war in the mid-1950s onwards he was heavily involved in stock car racing, both as a driver and promoter.

 

He is also named on the Coventry rider base as a 1936 rider.

Edited by speedyguy
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Thank you all for the kind words, I have not replied as me and the hubby went down to watch the tour de france and it was fantastic.

 

The centre of the sash maybe enamled silver the wings do have hall marks on them, but i am unable to make anything out but a D .

 

My dad (Roy) did ride cycle speedway and I will point him in the direction of this forum so he can update you and also what happened with Sid.

 

My dad has some really good scrap book and photos of grandad riding. I always live the fact that Tom had to have his bike altered as his arms were so short.

 

My hubby is going to take a photo and i will upload it which m ay help.

 

Kind regards

 

annie

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Thanks Annie, If the letter "D" is a capital, this indicates the year of assay as 1928/29

You probably need an 8x magnifier to make out the marks, which should be a 'lion passant' a 'ships anchor' (B'ham mark) and a makers mark?

 

 

Regards ..............Nigel

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  • 3 weeks later...

It seems this trophy was the 'Golden Sash'... Tom won this trophy on the 30th July 1929, in the 5 man Final he beat Ivor Anslow 2nd, Tommy Deadman 3rd, followed by George Milton (Warrington) and George Allbrook. Tom's winning time 90.2 secs

 

2 Trophies?.....The Golden Sash was again raced for on the 20th of August 1929,

this time won by George Allbrook who was a team mate of Toms at Coventry

 

 

annie I have sent you a personal message.

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  • 4 months later...
Thank you all for the kind words, I have not replied as me and the hubby went down to watch the tour de france and it was fantastic.

 

The centre of the sash maybe enamled silver the wings do have hall marks on them, but i am unable to make anything out but a D .

 

My dad (Roy) did ride cycle speedway and I will point him in the direction of this forum so he can update you and also what happened with Sid.

 

My dad has some really good scrap book and photos of grandad riding. I always live the fact that Tom had to have his bike altered as his arms were so short.

 

My hubby is going to take a photo and i will upload it which m ay help.

 

Kind regards

 

annie

 

Hi

 

As I'm new to the forum I've only just found this thread

I learnt about Tom from my father who saw him ride - I'm not old enough to ave seen him but there's always been some magic about the name of Tom Farndon and his story

I have an autograph book containing his signature marked "Coventry 11.7.30" - see

http://speedwaymemories.fotopic.net/p35351605.html

and photos of his grave which you can see at

http://speedwaymemories.fotopic.net/c1189884.html

I met a relation of Tom's some years ago who lived at Cannon Park in Coventry (I can't now remember who it was) and made a lot of notes about Tom from the items which the relation had (perhaps Annie can identify this person for me!) - I must look them out and precis them

 

Cliff

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