Way back in the early 1960's six boys who's ages ranged from 7 years upwards used to spend their Sunday afternoons driving
old cars around the field behind their father's scrapyard. The father was the legendary Phil Rogers (senior) who went on to
be one of the founder members of Radford Club. The boys concerned were Mike, Tony, Arthur and Phil (junior) who were the sons
of Phil senior and also joining them was Martin (Hoss) Fernihough and Pete Bott Senior.
The boys managed to get hold of anything that had an engine in it. The vehicles mainly used were an Austin 16, A70, 10
Humber Snipe V8 Pilot all of which will probably be unheard of by the younger generation of racers today. This at the time
was done without any of the parents knowledge. All they were trying to do was to drive anything as fast as possible and as
children didn't care or consider anything about safety.
Martin's dad Alec, heard about them and took pity on them especially when complaints came in regard the
noise and also when one incident happened where a telegraph pole in the middle of the field became an unfortunate target
and was toppled over and hit an electric transformer. This took out the local electricity supply. The Brookside kids
as they had named themselves found that they had now no where to race. As Alec Fernihough had become sympathetic to their
cause they were able to move and race on one of the fields at the Fernihough farm. Many people in the village of Radford and
Inkberrow heard of them and it soon became popular.
The older of the boys saw an advert in the local paper stating that a stock car race meeting was being held at Grimley
gravel pits near Worcestershire. After alot of pestering and black mailing, the parents found themselves taking a car to the
meeting and entering. Much to there surprise they actually won some races. Two other jalopies were there and that's when they
really got the big racing bug. When they returned home they all decided to get to work with welding equipment, cutting gear
and built the first Radford Jalopy.
Unfortunately they didn't have any where to race properly apart from Alec Fernihough's field, so after many phone calls
to Wales and the surrounding areas they managed to find a club in Hereford.
When it came to the end of that season the original Brookside Kids had left school and they decided to form their own
club and this is when Radford and District Jalopy Club was born. This official date was 17th October 1967 and 8 High house
drive, Inkberrow was the official club address.
The first members were:
Art Rogers - R117D
Phil Rogers (senior) - R116D
Harry Badger - R115D
Pete Bott - R114D
Martin Fernihough - R208D
Phil Rogers (junior) - R100D
Mick Rogers - R13D
And thanks to them here we are 41 years later!!
