Dennis Willcock, world fencing champion / sidecars

So there I was at a T-junction somewhere in Tavistock, wondering (Emily had left the playground-finding map at home) where we should go next on our playground-finding tour when I spotted a sprightly man striding up the hill, so I asked him for directions. He was Dennis Willcock - a lovely, interesting, vigorous man - the UK's world (very!) over-70 fencing champion!

Dennis was interested in our bike trailer, an 'Adventure AT3' bought from Amazon (but perhaps no longer in stock). He told us he had had sidecars on a motorcycle and before that on a tandem bicycle. I had a quick search to see if I could find out anything about bicycle sidecars: I'd never seen one. A few pages mentioned "Watsonian" sidecars, which I recall Dennis mentioning as the make of one of his sidecars. Feast your eyes on these beauties:

1936 BSA T64 Piled Arms Tandem with Watsonian Sidecar

Coventry Eagle tandem and Watsonian Sidecar

A bicycle sidecar sounds more romantic than practical to me - I can only dream of what it must be like to ride one!