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Roy Richards
Midlands businessman who founded the National Motorcycle Museum near Birmingham, the world’s largest collection of British motorcycles
Roy Richards was a businessman in the building industry and founder of the National Motorcycle Museum in Solihull, near Birmingham, now thought to possess the largest collection of motorcycles in the world.Passionate about motorcycles, Richards set up conference centres and hotels to ensure that the museum had a reliable income.
Roy Richards was born in 1931 and attended Bordesley Green Technical School. After leaving, aged 14, he went to work as a surveyor at Bryant Builders, now one of the country’s largest house builders. After seven years there he decided to set up his own company. With a partner, Ray Wallington, he set up a building firm, Richards & Wallington. In 1968 the company branched out and started a plant hire company under the same name; this went on to become the successful British Crane Hire Corporation, Europe’s largest crane hire company.
As a child Richards had been fanatic about motorcycles: not only the bikes, but their history too, and, according to friends, a sense of nostalgia for how England used to be. Although Richards rode little in later life, his first bike was a Norton Model 18 and he would say that “when God made the mountains, he had Norton in mind”.
In 1984 he decided to open the National Motorcycle Museum in Solihull, to span the “60 Glorious Years” of motorcycle manufacturing in Britain. Richards’ aim was, he said, to “preserve these pieces of history for future generations, as a reminder of this great nation’s industry, engineering prowess and work ethic”. The museum opened in October 1984 with a display of 350 bikes, and it was soon attracting 250,000 visitors each year.
Richards left British Crane Hire in order to focus on the museum and the problem of funding his ambitious plans for expansion. The museum now offers conference facilities, and two hotels in the Midlands are part of a trust for the museum’s maintenance. With its future finances assured, the collection grew to more than 800 machines. In 2003 a fire destroyed 70 per cent of the museum, but Richards was not deterred. With a team of dedicated supporters he worked around the clock, seven days a week, and after 15 months and a £20 million repair bill, the museum opened its doors to the public once again.
Married four times, Richards is survived by his wife, Christine, a son and daughter and three step-children.
Roy Richards, construction industry entrepreneur and founder of the National Motorcycle Museum, was born on January 30, 1931. He died of respiratory failure on March 29, 2008, aged 77
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