There is a scene in the 2011 film, “We Bought A Zoo”, with Matt Damon and the gorgeous Scarlett Johannsson, where you see his office and on the wall behind him are a set of photographs. And on one of them is a motorcyclist.
He is George Brockerton. A Coleraine boy, he rode in the first NW-200, raced and won in the Ulster Grand Prix and Isle of Man TT, and had a cafe at Ballyreagh along the road to Portstewart.
He served in both world wars, rode the Wall of Death outside Barry’s. He is an awesome super-hero – and an ordinary guy too.
Until 3 weeks ago, I had not heard of him. I must tell his story.
The Wall of Death stadium was out the back of Barry’s. Was I really there, do I remember it? or am I remembering the postcard with the image of the bike rider, standing on the saddle, going higher and higher up the track? It is the Wall of Death.
George Brockerton grew up in Coleraine. He learnt to ride a motorbike at the age of twelve – me, I think I just about managed to ride an ordinary bike by that age, He followed his father into the army during WWI as a despatch rider, and they said about him, “No-one could ride the gauntlet of barrages better then he.”
Peace time and he was a scout for the RAC. Then his motor-racing career took off in the 1920s, as a works rider for the English Osborn Engineering Company, competing regularly in the Isle of Man TT, winning the Ulster Grand Prix in 1928, and the Ulster prize in 1929 on a Zenith motorbike.
The first North West 200 was in 1929; Brockerton competed, and later he managed the event with the Coleraine and District Motor Cycle dub.
Jack Delino’s Wall of Death was a big attraction at Barry’s at Portrush in the 1930s. George entered a challenge and pulled off the dare devil test, and then he took over the show and took it all over Ireland and then to Holland and Italy. He did stunts with the film star Anna May, and with a circus in Italy with a lion in a side car – meeting Mussolini at his World Fair.
My brother Trevor says, : “Don’t know what to say about the wall of death other than my recollection is, (1) it was only in town one year, (2) the show didn’t last too long and (3) I saved up all my newspaper delivery money to buy a ticket – it cost a lot to get in – and then afterwards they asked people to throw more money into the ring!”
My eldest brother Jim, says, “I don’t even remember the wall.” Honestly!
Another occasion, an American cameraman wanted to record a stunt during his filming about the Antrim Coast, and George volunteered to ride his motorcycle across the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge. His handlebars were too wide for the bridge ropes – he borrowed a hacksaw from a local farmer and cut them off – and rode over the swaying bridge, and back again. (Er, walking across the rope bridge is difficult enough for me at the best of times – but to ride it ????)
And right, lion in sidecar! do see the little 1934 Pathe film clip, Wall of Death in the US.
WWII, and George was an instructor to despatch riders. At Dunkirk he rescued 81 man trapped in a cellar, using grenades to blast an escape hole for them. And then he found them wine and food and entertained them with conjuring tricks, before disappearing himself without giving his name, saying, “Men, that’s my hobby, risking my life.”
Peace time again, and he took up competive racing on his home made motorbike, which he nicknamed ‘The Bitza’ – bits of this, bits of that. George was now in his ’50s, but still winning races in the 1950s.
Sheila Brown, at Tides at Ballyreagh: “I remember him on an old Bitza bike, he won trophies & in the Isle of Man. He owned the cafe beside us, that was run in our day by the Fishers. I think George Brockerton was in the wall of death in Barry’s. We used to watch for him – it was all a gimmick, him in the race.”
Gerald Bradley writes: “When we stayed in the caravan site at Ballyreagh beside Blair’s shop we would have had our breakfast in George Brockerton’s roadhouse. And I remember seeing George riding the Wall of Death in Barry’s, riding his motor bike around the walls at great speed, and also seeing him in the Ulster Grand Prix on his Bitza bike.
George was a real showman – famous too for wearing a large sombrero hat.”
Reba Jackson writes, “”I remember my father enjoying the Wall of Death by talented bike riders doing amazing stunts. I was not so keen to watch!”
Ken Mcallister: “Yes i remember the the wall of death right outside the back door of Barry’s – the noise was unbelieveable. But the crowds loved it. There was also Musical Marie, who played the piano non-stop, for 4 days – but joe donnelly and i caught them out; she went for a cup of tea but the piano was playing but with nobody near it!”
Bobby Ann writes: “My father was a frequent visitor to the Brockerton house on Portstewart road. His brother worked for UTA (Ulster Transport Assoc.) as did my dad & uncle. I knew his sister Margaret, Mrs Stockman, Causeway St – the grandmother to Karen & Michele Ross, Derek owned the rock shop. L. V Ross, his mother, had the other shop in front of Masons.
My dad had loads of stories, even about stripping George’s bike a few times.. They were young & motor bike mad!”
Fred Williams writes: “Yes I remember the Wall of Death – a long time ago so a bit vague! I think there was a gentleman called George Brockerton had something to do with it. He was also the compère at the first go-cart races at the back of the Chapel. He also used to show black and white films – he used back projection which made the film back to front. Yes I remember watching his films, sitting on the grass at Ramore Head: there was an old wooden hut we called the piero hut – a wooden hut on the grass down opposite the recreation ground cafeteria, not in the recreation grounds but on the grassy slope of Ramore Head.”
Gerald says that, “During the winter months George showed films around the villages in Orange Halls,” taking the thrills of the Wild West and Broadway to the people in the villages and townlands of Ulster. He resurrected a magic act and “entertained people in a room on Portrush Main St” – perhaps the pierrot hut that Fred mentions – and in hotels. And I see the Dart pub in Coleraine mentioned.
In his last season, 1965, he toured the UK both as a Wall of Death rider and as a performer in the ‘Globe of Death’ — a metal sphere which he had custom-built at Belfast ship-builder’s Harland and Wolff. Cyril Davison remembers the Wall of Death and says he rode a motor bike with George Brockerton on the Wall of Death and an ordinary bicycle in the Cage of Death.
The Big Dipper appearred at Barry’s in 1968 season, so I assume the Wall of Death was there until early 1960s.
So, amazing life story of George Brockerton, larger than life, world wars and adventures, first NW-200, motor bike racing – and with the ordinary stuff too, runing a pub in Coleraine, the roadside cafe at Ballyreagh, showing films in local halls.
I don’t go for these stories as nostalgia, good ol’ days, but always as life stories, to thrill and inspire us in these days, going forward. So, George Brockerton: what a guy!
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Portrush, Easter – My Day in Barry’s
It is the cacophony of noise and the flashing of neon lights and the smells of sickly popcorn and of grease that hits you when you walk in the front door of Barry’s. And the electric sparking of the Speedway. And the excitement.
It is Easter Saturday, the opening day of the season…
Barry’s and the Wall of Death
George Brockerton, a Coleraine boy. He rode in the first NW-200, raced and won in the Ulster Grand Prix and Isle of Man TT, and had a cafe at Ballyreagh along the road to Portstewart.
He served in both world wars, rode the Wall of Death outside Barry’s. He is an awesome super-hero – and an ordinary guy too.
Until 3 weeks ago, I had not heard of him. I must tell his story.
Barry’s and the Helter Skelter
“Back then employment law was a lot more relaxed and you could work from 10am to 10pm with two one hour breaks. In my favourite season I spent all summer at the top of the ‘Slip’ or Helter Skelter with Graeme Tosh collecting the money at the bottom of the slide. Now that was a great summer, sitting getting a tan with a bird’s eye view of everything happening in Portrush.”
Sources:
https://www.pressreader.com/uk/belfast-telegraph/20110107/282071978342485
https://issuu.com/thecolumban/docs/may-2011/18
http://www.justpeoplelikeus.com/blog/the-first-north-west-200-20th-april-1929
From Irene Peden, The Wall of Death:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1604149776578271/permalink/1650736421919606
Portrush Tales 
Oh wow! Now that’s a daredevil hero … and I’d never even heard of him until now! Why have they never made a film about him and his wartime heroics and his later motorbike antics? Probably because he’s only from a wee town in Ulster.
PS – how very sexist of you to use the adjective ‘gorgeous’ re Scarlett and yet poor Matt is left un-adjectived 😆
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