Two rival youth cultures that clashed several times at Brighton in the 1960s, the most infamous occasion being the so-called ‘Battle of Brighton’ at the Whitsun holiday, 17-18 May 1964. The Brighton police were prepared for trouble as there had been clashes at Clacton and Hastings at Easter, but the town was invaded by up to 3,000 youths. The leather-jacketed ‘Rockers’ arrived on their motor-bikes on the Sunday morning, but were challenged in the afternoon by a much larger number of the neatly-dressed ‘Mods’ on their motor-scooters.
Several small scuffles broke out, but the most serious trouble was around the Palace Pier where hundreds of deckchairs were broken, pebbles were used as missiles, and the Savoy Cinema windows were smashed. Eventually 150 police and a police horse quelled the disturbance, but the violence was repeated the following morning with several thousand spectators watching the confrontations from the Aquarium Sun Terrace and marine Parade; the sea-front traders, however, rapidly boarded up their properties. Twenty-six youths appeared in the juvenile court the following week and were handed stiff sentences, but fortunately no-one was seriously injured.
– Encyclopaedia of Brighton, by Tim Calder, 1990
After WW2, English, French, German and Italian companies started making motor-scooters. Lambretta and Vespa offered the most stylish and reliable models so, by the mid-fifties, they had become the dominant manufacturers. Scooter clubs were started throughout Great Britain, and scooters were soon as popular as motorcycles among young people. This was reflected in the wheeled toy market, where more children’s pedal motor-scooters were offered for sale than pedal motor-cycles. Tri-ang was by now the leading retailer of children’s toys, and they brought out their first pedal motor-scooter in 1954. The Tri-ang Tri-etta is a large well-built machine with metal bodywork and solid rubber tyres. Three years later, it was joined by a smaller model with stabilisers, the Tri-etta Junior.
1954 Tri-ang Tri-etta Pedal Scooter
LENGTH: 40″
WIDTH: 18″
HEIGHT: 31″
Wheels 12.5″
1954 TRI-ANG TRI-ETTA & 1957 TRI-ETTA JUNIOR
