Britain’s National Motorcycle Museum, home to many famous off-road bikes as well as 1000 road and road racing machines, faces a fight for survival after its appeal for some Covid-19 funding was turned down.

The museum, near the NEC in Birmingham, applied for a grant from the Recovery fund which was set up to help organisations hit by the pandemic but was turned down. The total fund is £500 million, with grants from £50,000 to £3 million available.

Some of the recipients include the North Yorks Historical Railway Trust with £1.9 million, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club with £1.27 million, £67,000 to the pen museum, £780,000 to the tank museum and £183,000 to the British Commercial Vehicle museum.

The museum spent several weeks compiling the very detailed application but has been turned down, and there is no right of appeal.

The museum is running a Covid-19 raffle to raise funds for limited reopening in 2021. The raffle is for a brand new 1977 Norton Commando 850. Second prize is a 1948 Ariel NG 350 and third prize is a 1959 BSA B31, as show in the picture above.

Enter the raffle or make a donation at www.nationalmotorcyclemuseum.co.uk.