A plaque on a cottage (now Greens Restaurant/Tea Rooms) on the main road in St. John's commemorates the centenary of the winning of the first Motorcycle Tourist Trophy (TT) by Charles Collier on a 'Matchless' machine.
The full text of the plaque is shown below:
'1907 TT START AND FINISH LINE
THIS PLAQUE WAS UNVEILED BY GEOFF DUKE O.B.E.
ON 28TH OF MAY 2007 TO COMMEMORATE THE
CENTENARY OF THE FIRST MOTORCYCLE TT' Below the text is the official Isle of Man TT logo Further detail on the St. John's Short Course can be found at the following link: (
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'The 1907 Isle of Man TT races were the inaugural International Tourist Trophy for motor-cycles held on the Isle of Man. The event was held on Tuesday 28 May 1907 over the St John's Short Course consisting of a Single Cylinder and a Twin-Cylinder class. The race was ten laps of the 15-mile 1,430 yards course, a total race distance of 158 miles 220 yards (226.071 km).'
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Charles Collier won the won the Single Cylinder TT Race on his 3.5 hp 'Matchless' in a time of 4:08.08.2 at an average racing speed of 38.21 mph.
'Motor racing first came to the Isle of Man in 1904 when the Gordon Bennett car trials were held.
In England the Government made it impossible to close the public roads for any sort of motor racing so a proposal was put the Isle of Man Government. The Manx Government brought in new legislation to enable the closing of public roads for motor racing and the Isle of Man was ready to take up the mantle of the Road Racing Capital of the World, a slogan it has used for many years.
The first motorcycle race held on the Island was the qualifying trials for the International race to be held in Austria. The course used ran from Quarter Bridge south to Castletown, then back through Foxdale to Ballacraine, then reverse way to the TT back to Quarter Bridge.
The first TT races where held on the triangular course with the start at St John's. The riders proceeded along to Ballacraine before turning left and following the current TT course through to Kirk Michael. At Douglas Road Corner in Kirk Michael, the short course left the current TT course and followed the coast road to Peel, before turning left again and heading back to St John's. In 1907 two races were held on the short course with H. Rem Fowler winning the twin cylinder class on a Peugeot-engined Norton at 36.22mph and Charlie Collier the single cylinder class on a Matchless at 38.22mph. They each set the fastest lap in their respective classes, Fowler at 42.91 mph and Collier at 41.81 mph.
The short course was used for the first 4 years and in 1910 Charlie Collier won the last TT on the short course on a Matchless at 50.63mph. The fastest lap that year was by H Bowen on a BAT at 53.15 mph. In 1911 the racing moved to the Mountain circuit, which is used today.' (
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'Geoffrey Ernest Duke OBE (29 March 1923 – 1 May 2015) was a British multiple motorcycle Grand Prix road racing world champion. Born in St. Helens, Lancashire, after retirement from competition he was a businessman based in the Isle of Man. He raced several brands of motorcycle: Norton, Gilera, BMW, NSU and Benelli.'https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoff_Duke
Geoff Duke had an impressive career in the Isle of Man TT competing in 9 races between 1949 and 1959. He won 6 races, the first coming in the 1949 Clubman's Senior TT and his last win being in the 1955 Senior TT. He also finished on the podium a total of 8 times.
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