MORE THAN JOURNALISM!

Words: Trials Guru; John Moffat; Alan Lampkin; The late Barry Robinson; Malcolm Rathmell; Eric Kitchen.

Photos: Barry Robinson (by kind permission of Mrs. L. Old); Barry Watson; Malcolm Rathmell; Barry Watson.

(Front Cover image: Fernando ‘Randy’ Munoz (Spain); Martin Lampkin & Malcolm Rathmell, photographed by Barry Robinson in 1973 at the Timperley Cup Trial.)

We are fortunate to be permitted to showcase a selection of photographs taken over the years by the late Barry Robinson of Ilkely, West Yorkshire who had been active since 1957. This special section of Trials Guru is dedicated to the memory of Barry Robinson.

Riders featured:

John Hemingway; Dave Thorpe; Gabino Renales; Richard Sunter; Malcolm Rathmell; Gerald Rathmell; Alan Lampkin; Arthur Lampkin; Martin Lampkin; Rob Shepherd; Nick Jefferies; Sammy Miller; Jim Sandiford; Barry Watson; Ron Suttill; Chris Griffin; John Lampkin; Iwan Roberts; John Shirt Jnr; Glen Scholey; Rob Edwards; Michael Brown; Yrjo Vesterinen; Dougie Lampkin; Nick Jefferies; Jimmy Aird; Graham Tales; Fernando Munoz; Mick Andrews; Peter Gaunt; Blackie Holden; Tony Scarlett; Joe Buckworth; Xavier Puig; Terry Wright; Mike Skinner; Bill Wilkinson; Mick Wilkinson; Chris Clarke.

Born on 19th October in 1931, Robinson has taken photographs for a plethora of national and the motorcycling press streching over six decades. He was a member of the National Union of Journalists as a freelance photographer and writer. Barry Robinson was a journalist of the ‘old school’ trained by those who knew not only how to write, but to respect the rules and regulations with regards to original copy, never copying anyone else’s work.

Barry’s passing on the 26th of February 2023, aged ninety-one years, touched many people associated with the sport of Trial, so how better to celebrate his life than by those who knew him most and celebrate his work by viewing his fantastic photographs over the years.

Journalism:

Barry Robinson reported for many of the off-road press including Motor Cycle News and Trials and Motocross News. He had been press officer to many clubs and associations and was also a national clerk of the course for events.

Few appreciate that he was also a keen off-road competitor and an expert class trials rider himself.

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Photographer:

Like many of his contemporaries, Barry started off with glass negatives, then progressing on to 35mm roll film which required developing and processing.

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Please be respectful of the late Barry Robinson’s intellectual property, all the images are now the property of his estate, so please do not share individual images on social media or other internet websites. We have gone to a lot of trouble to be granted permission directly from Mr. Robinson’s representatives to display his work on Trials Guru website.

Eric Kitchen – International Trials Photographer on Barry Robinson:

“I cost him money!” – those are the most memorable words I remember hearing from my late friend Barry Robinson, and he spoke those words not long after buying his first digital camera.

“It must have been in the very late ‘nineties or very early 2000 when I told him that the time had come to pass on from 35mm cameras and join the digital age, which I had been enjoying for a few years by then. He took my advice and bought himself a digital Nikon, hence the exclamation he made over the phone to me one day.”

“I don’t recall when I first got to know Barry, it must have been sometime in the mid to late seventies, certainly in the days before Trials & Motocross News, which we both eventually worked for as freelance photographers, though Barry was also a writer as well as an excellent photographer.”

“I had begun to venture into Yorkshire to take pictures and it was Barry who took me round the various places, introduced me to many landowners and organisers of both trials and scrambles and particularly the Scott Trial which remains one of my favourite events though it’s very difficult to photograph successfully in a day.”

“Over the years we met at many Yorkshire trials, Barry didn’t venture far out of Yorkshire though he did do a spell as Press Secretary for the Scottish Six Days many years ago, but even though we perhaps met only occasionally, he frequently rang me to chat about cameras and things biking generally.”

“I may well have cost him money in the first place, but I believe he enjoyed being such a respected photojournalist and having the best kit to do the job was something he always believed in having. The sport was very fortunate to have such an enthusiast to cover events and I shall miss our chats about the latest camera gear.” – Eric Kitchen, Grange Over Sands

Rob Shepherd:

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Barry Robinson told Trials Guru in 2018: “I trained to be a journalist for two years and was up to speed in shorthand and typing plus well into the French language.”

“My mother made me to train as an electrician. I became an appliance engineer for the electricity board then did a refrigeration course at Frigidaire in London. After that I started and ran an electrical business in Ilkley for ten years with seven electricians. I am related to James Noble on my wife’s side and his grandfather was my apprentice. I had two years of hospital red tape, then joined Dawson MMP in London as a catering equipment engineer. I have worked in universities, hospitals, prisons, secret defence establishments above and underground and every Townsend Thoreson and P and O Ferry sailing out of the UK.

I started with The Motor Cycle, then Motor Cycling, then Motor Cycle News. In amongst all that I took over the Daily Telegraph when Ralph Venables was ill and eventually wrote his obituary. Ralph put my name forward as his successor, an honour indeed. I wrote for ‘Californian Biker’ for Lynden Luhman whom I met when the Wetherby club ran the Pateley Bridge world trial.“

“Thanks purely to Colin Appleyard,  Dunlop came on board and also the SSDT thanks to Dunlop’s Press Officer Christine Arundel who was brilliant and trusted me enough to run the SSDT Press Office for three years. I was a Centre trials expert on a home-built RAC Villiers competing against the likes of Bill Wilkinson, Artie Ratcliffe, Stan Holmes. Tom Ellis, Geoff Broadbent and Blackie Holden.“

“I did some scrambling on a 250 Velocette built by Eric Rathmell and passenger on grass with Roy Cunliffe and won the Yorkshire and Lancashire grass track championships. I took over as Clerk of Course for the Ilkley Grand National after being assistant to Eric Rathmell for twenty years. Marjory and Eric were my our best friends. Hence the close ties with Rhoda and Malcolm.“

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Malcolm Rathmell on Barry Robinson:

“I have known Barry Robinson all my life. He lived in Otley and used to keep his bikes at our family home at Timble. By the age of ten, I could start his little two-stroke, known as a JAB and I have no idea why, I wish I had asked him! I remember it was different because it was painted white with red dots on it. I used it most nights, the only giveaway was he left it with a full tank of petrol and by the next weekend it was empty!”

“Barry was a really great bloke, a man that gave his whole life to bikes. Firstly riding, then reporting and photography. He was well known to everybody in the Yorkshire Centre and to many people nationwide as he covered national events too.”

‘Robbo,’ as my father Eric always called him took John Hemingway and myself to our first ‘away’ national, I believe it was the Bemrose Trophy from memory. He was literally our driver, mentor, and manager.”

“Barry was a long-standing member of the Yorkshire Centre and the Ilkley and District MC. He did a lot of work behind the scenes at club, centre and national level including taking over from my father as clerk of the course for the Ilkley Grand National. He was very close to my father whom he always called ‘Tash Rat.’ In fact, when my father died, Barry said it was the worst day of his life and he could not even imagine a life without him in it.”

“A very loyal and trusted friend who had to sit on many stories until the time was right which I always had faith he would do, he never let me down. He will be sadly missed by us all in the motorcycle world.” – Malcolm Rathmell – SSDT & Scott Trial winner, British and 1974 Trans-America trials Champion.

The Malcolm Rathmell Connection:

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Jim Sandiford:

Terry Wright:

Association with the Lampkin family:

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Alan Lampkin on behalf of the Lampkin family on Barry Robinson:

“What can we say about Barry, one of the ultimate professionals at his trade, the reporting and photographing of all aspects of motor sport, be it trials, scrambles, grass track, and all four wheeled motor sports? Anything for a story, as he always said that the local riders, which is the Rathmells and Lampkins bought him his first house.

We, the Lampkin family, have known Barry from the very early days, when I used to go with big brother Arthur to trials and scrambles, he would always be there with a friendly smile.

He was also an accomplished trials rider in his own right, on solos, and also as a grass track sidecar passenger, in the chair for Roy Cunliffe, an Ilkley motorcycle dealer, he was also a great competitor. Living locally, quite close to the Rathmell family home, and a great friend of Eric Rathmell, Malcolm’s father, he always had his finger on the pulse, and often called into the Lampkin family workshop touting for any pieces of information he might have got wind of to be first off the press.

Barry was always there whatever the weather, taking photos and giving advice to all, both young and old, and as one of the old school, having been there and done it, this was very well respected. He will be sadly missed by all, especially in the Yorkshire centre, where he was a central figure of club motor sport.” – Alan Lampkin – International trials and scrambles rider, Scott Trial & SSDT winner.

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Riders through the ages:

Chris Griffin:

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Rob Edwards:

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Yrjo Vesterinen:

Dougie Lampkin:

John R. Shirt:

Blackie Holden:

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Barry Watson & Ron Suttill:

 

Jimmy Aird:

John Reynolds:

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Mike Skinner:

Dave Thorpe:

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Graham Tales:

Mick Andrews:

Kiyoteru Hattori:

Peter Gaunt:

Nick Jefferies:

Tony Scarlett:

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Joe Buckworth:

Richard Sunter:

John Hemingway:

Steve Saunders:

 

Brian Hutchinson:

Glen Scholey:

Bill Wilkinson:

 

 

Mick Wilkinson:

 

Chris Clarke:

Gabino Renales:

More on Barry Robinson:

Barry Robinson began taking photographs back in 1957 for the fledgling Motor Cycle News and very soon, reporting on the Scott Trial became an annual task.

He was the press officer for the Scott Trial for many years and promoted not only the Scott, but many Yorkshire trials over the years.

Serious about his craft, he joined the National Union of Journalists and he also worked on the Motor Cycle; Daily Telegraph; Californian Biker; Newsquest; and Yorkshire TV. He also reported trials events for a plethora of Yorkshire based newspapers, such as the Bradford ‘Telegraph & Argus’, as well as Trials & Motocross News from May 1977.

Robinson got to know Eric Rathmell, father of Malcolm and Gerald back in 1953 when he rented a cottage in the village of Otley and became life-long friends with the whole Rathmell family from that moment on. But then again, Barry got to know well a plethora of Yorkshire and International riders over the years, such was his stature.

He had also been a Speedway referee, a TT and Ulster GP mechanic for Alan Shepherd and Rob Fitton and an ACU road race steward. He was also an assistant clerk of the course of the Ilkley Grand National to Eric Rathmell for twenty-five years. He also ran the Dunlop press office at the Scottish Six Days Trial for three years when the tyre company sponsored the event, achieving many column inches for the event in the national newspapers at that time.

Barry’s passing on the 26th of February 2023, aged ninety-one years, touched many people associated with trials, not only in Yorkshire, but further afield, so how better to celebrate his life than by those who knew him most and celebrate his work by viewing his wonderful photographs that he took over the years.

We are very grateful to be permitted by the survivors of Barry Robinson to continue to display his photographic work by way of a tribute to the contribution Barry made to motorcycle sport in seventy years he took photographs of and reported upon events for readers to enjoy.

Barry Robinson 1931 – 2023

Footnote:

Apart from ‘Fair Dealing’ for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988, no part of any article may be copied, reproduced, stored in any form of retrieval system, electronic or otherwise or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrical, mechanical, optical, chemical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the author as stated above and below. All articles are not published for any monetary reward or monetisation, be that online or in print.

Text Copyright: Trials Guru 2025

Photographic Copyright: The Estate of the late Barry Robinson, by express permission of Mrs. Liz Old, given in October 2023.