The BSA Bantam is a two-stroke unit construction motorcycle that was produced by the Birmingham Small Arms Company from 1948 until 1971. Exact production figures are unknown, but it was between 350,000 and 500,000.
In part, our BSA (Birmingham Small Arms) Bantam display is to honour Joy McKean. McKean, born and raised in Rangiwahia, was a well-known midwife who rode a Bantam around the world in the 1950s.
In 2023 a group of motorcycle enthusiasts rode on a pilgrimage to honour the 75th anniversary of their beloved Bantam bikes and having discovered McKean’s story, stopped at Rangiwahia Cemetery for a remembrance ceremony on their way from Bluff to Cape Reinga.
Joy McKean, who died in 2000 aged 82, was born and lived in Rangiwahia. She did her medical training in the United Kingdom before returning to New Zealand. Joy went on all sorts of trips across the world, including Africa and South America and dedicated a lot of her money to the African families she met on her journeys. Once she cycled from Adelaide to Darwin in Australia, then got a motorcycle after that.
The Coach House Museum is the lucky recipient of a lifetime of model-making by Palmerston North man, Trevor Hobman.
Trevor – a retired floorer - hand crafted wooden models of ships, aircraft, trams and trains. All the models were made in his garage in Palmerston North using scrap wood he collected, with the only cost being the paint! Before he had a computer to access plans online, he created his own plans of the models, using just photographs and drawings and a good eye for scale.
Trevor’s favourite model was the Mikhail Lermontov, a luxury Russian cruise ship which sank in the Marlborough Sounds in 1986.
For some, the models bring about a sense of nostalgia: "A lot of the old people that come in... it brings back memories”.
Trevor started off with planes but went on to create a variety of models, including a penny farthing. He liked “to make the first ones in the world”.
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