Beschreibung:

Gloucester-based Cotton established its reputation with a string of racing successes in the 1920s thanks to an innovative frame patented by its founder, Frank Willoughby Cotton. Cotton's design featured four straight tubes running from the steering head to the rear wheel spindle, augmented by further straight stays supporting the gearbox and engine. The result was a stiff, lightweight chassis far in advance of the bicycle-derived diamond-type frame used by the majority of manufacturers. Like other small independent firms Cotton relied on proprietary engines, principally JAP and Blackburne, but such was the advantage conferred by its frame that the Cotton had little trouble seeing off similarly powered rivals. The legendary Stanley Woods made his Isle of Man TT debut on a Cotton in 1922, going on to win the Junior event at record speed the following year. Countless wins and podium places were achieved in international events throughout the 1920s, Cotton's finest TT achievement occurring in 1926 when its entries finished 1, 2, 3 in the 250 Lightweight race. Previous owner Jack Squirrel purchased this Cotton-Blackburne racer in the early 1980s from well-known Brooklands competitor, the late Rupert Leveson-Gower (see letter on file). Leveson-Gower told Jack that he had bought it from another ex-Brooklands racer Leslie Hawthorn, proprietor of the T-T Garage, Farnham and father of Britain's first Formula 1 World Champion, Mike Hawthorn. The machine had been sold to Leveson-Gower as 'ex-Eric Fernihough' and this attribution is repeated in Motor Sport magazine's August 1951 edition in which editor Bill Boddy recounted details of his visit to the T-T Garage in an article entitled 'The Hawthorn Rileys'. Boddy's article concludes with the statement that he had also been shown various motorcycles including 'the ex-Fernihough twin-cam Cotton-Blackburne'. Rupert Leveson-Gower's brother Alastair (holder of a Brooklands 'Gold Star') worked at Leslie Hawthorn's T-TB Garage and his son Robert (Rupert's nephew) has confirmed that Rupert bought an 'ex-Fernihough Cotton' from Leslie Hawthorn. Eric Fernihough was only briefly associated with Cotton. In 1935 he was charged with preparing JAP engines for Cotton's entries in that year's Isle of Man Lightweight TT. Despite Eric's best efforts, the Cottons fared no better than they had in 1934, the lead machine finishing 11th while the other two retired. After the TT Eric bought one of the Cottons, which was prepared for short circuit and road racing, complete with a large-capacity fuel tank fabricated by his assistant, Dick Chapman, whose experiences of working with the great man were recounted in an article in Motorcycle Sport (April 1991 edition). Later in 1935, Eric took the Cotton-JAP to 2nd place in the '250' event at the Dieppe Grand Prix and won his class at the Brighton Speed Trials in September. In October, he and fellow Brooklands competitor Charles Mortimer shared the Cotton for a successful attempt at several long-distance records at the Weybridge track. Eric Fernihough was killed on 23rd April 1938 while attempting to regain the motorcycle land speed record when his Brough Superior crashed at Gyón, Hungary. By this time the Cotton-JAP record-breaker had been sold to another Brooklands racer, David Whitworth. A picture of him astride it was published many years later in Motorcycle Sport (May 1968 edition). There is, however, no documentary evidence to support a link between this Cotton-Blackburne and Eric Fernihough, who is most unlikely to have raced anything Blackburne-powered as he held an agency for the rival JAP concern and was an acknowledged expert in tuning their engines. Fernihough was an Excelsior agent and many of his early successes, and all of his Grand Prix victories, were achieved on the Tyseley firm's JAP-powered motorcycles. He was European Champion in the 175cc class for Excelsior in 1931. In any case, it has been reported that the ex-TT rider Norman Webb acquired the 1935