Scooter enthusiast calls for help finding people in unique 1960s footage of the Mid Sussex Vespa Club

Iain Wilkins, 52, restores scooters full time in the Midlands and said he was handed the Cine Camera film after his friend Pam Cadey passed away last year.

He told the Middy: “It consists of Pam’s 1960s scooter club days with the Mid Sussex Vespa Club. We own two of the club’s original scooters featured in the footage.”

Iain said he would like to learn the stories of the people in the video and to get in touch with ‘the legends of the scooter scene’ who travelled all over Europe in the ’60s and ’70s.

“It was quite an adventurous little crowd,” he said, adding that Pam was an early member of the Mid Sussex Vespa Club and travelled through Paris, Nice and many other places.

Iain explained that The Veteran Vespa Club was started in the south by Frank Brooks. He said: “In the early ’60s the scooter scene was flagging a bit so Frank Brooks came up with the idea of doing a scooter version of the London to Brighton.”

“The original run was basically the Mid Sussex Vespa Club,” he said. “The original idea was just the Mid Sussex club and everybody jumped onto it so then they turned it into The Veteran Vespa Club and that was anybody with a scooter dated from the early ’50s.”

Iain said that people from all over England travelled to Epsom and rode down to Brighton from there. But, sadly, he said it was just before the ‘mods and rockers’ brawls in Brighton, which ‘put a bit of a dampener’ on the hobby for a while and unfairly gave reputable scooter enthusiasts a bad name.

He said that next year will be the 60th anniversary of the London to Brighton ride and he has traced nine of the original scooters from that first run. Iain, who now has around 70 scooters, said he has found the original owner of his scooter, NCD191, while his friend Mick currently has Pam’s old ‘Doodlebug’.

Iain would like to get in touch with people who have information about the 1960s footage. He also collects memorabilia. Email [email protected].

People can watch the video on YouTube here.