 Thie history of Norton is a bumpy ride over a long and winding road. In 1898, Burmingham-born James Lansdowne Norton founded the Norton Manufacturing Company in the city to produce bicycle chains.
Four years later the company started to build motorbikes, buying in engines from overseas. In 1907, a Norton won the first TT and by 1910, there were eight models, two with Norton engines.
A better engineer than business administrator, JL Norton found his firm was on the verge of insolvency in 1913 and was saved by one of its creditors, forming Norton Motors Limited, which secured a government contract to supply the Russian army with engines during the First World War. The famous Norton logo appeared around this time.
In 1924, Alec Bennett won the Senior TT on a Norton, the first rider to average over 60mph in the race. James Norton died the following year. During the 1930s Norton cemented its place in racing history, winning seven of the nine Isle of Man Senior TT races between 1931 and 1939, when the factory started to produce the 100,000 bikes it built for the war effort.
In 1949, Norton introduced the Dominator model and continued to race successfully, but got into more financial trouble in 1953 and was sold to Associated Motorcycles. Production was shifted to London.
In 1966 the company was bought by Manganese Bronze Holdings and relaunched as Norton-Villiers. An injection of new capital resulted in the development of the first Commando.
In 1972, Norton-Villiers merged with the BSA-Triumph Group but industrial unrest and reductions in Government subsidies led the company into receivership in 1974.
In 1988 Norton was relaunched with production in Lichfield but the bikes made more impact on the track than the forecourt.
During the mid 90s attempts to consolidate Norton and start producing bikes in the US remained in the doldrums until bought by Stuart Garner in 2008.
Since then we have seen the launch of the new Norton Commando 961 SE, a special limited edition of 200 bikes that sold out instantly. With new developments already in hand new models will be launched over the next two years.
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