Norton was and is a British motorcycle manufacturer.
They were one of the great names of the British motorcycle industry, producing machines which for decades dominated racing. The original company was formed by James Norton in Wolverhampton in 1898. The Isle of Man Senior TT , the most prestigious of events, was won by Nortons ten times between the wars and then every year from 1947 to 1954.
The company declined in the 1960s and went into liquidation in 1974, but the name was relaunched on an ambitious scale in Lichfield in 1988. The new models have succeeded on the race track - winning the Senior TT in 1992 - but they have moved rather more slowly in the commercial market.
