Jake operated what became known as ‘the Big Wall’ the wall alongside his brother, Edward. His son, Tommy, meanwhile had to make his own way and wanted to buy his wall, the one he learned to ride on. However, for reasons which are not clear Jake would not sell it to him – one theory put forward is that he thought he might make a comeback one day. This could well be the case – the wall of death is addictive and while some ride only for a year or two and settle down, with others it would seem to be in their blood for life.

The result of this was that Tommy bought the Eddie Monte wall and operated it with his son, Tommy Jnr, who had himself been riding the wall since he started on the handlebars at the age of seven!

Tommy Messham Snr and Jnr in the race

Tommy Snr, however, became more involved with amusements he had in Chessington Zoo and eventually gave up the Wall. Tommy Jnr kept going until 1982, when he made his last appearance in this country at Nottingham Goose Fair. It had been for many years the only Wall of Death still travelling in the UK and for a short time afterwards there were no Walls operating.

The wall when operated by Tommy Messham Jnr

This was not the end of his Wall career, however. In 1994 he came out of retirement and took his Wall to Singapore, where Ken Fox joined him – this was to be the beginning of Ken’s association with this Wall. Another reason for Ken Fox being there was to look at the possibility of buying the Wall for himself and his partner, Peter Catchpoole. However, he decided that too much work needed to be done for the asking price (it must be clear there was nothing fundamentally wrong with it, simply it’s age) and so decided not to buy.

Tommy Jnr returned to tour in Ireland for a short while before finally selling the Wall to Graham Cripsey. Here the connection with Ken Fox is strengthened even more. It had been Graham Cripsey and his brother, Gary, who taught Ken to ride on their father’s Wall at Skegness. Ken, of course, went along and helped Graham get the Wall ready for opening and sort out the bikes.

The Wall made its debut appearance in Graham Cripsey’s ownership at Kings Lynn Mart in February 1996. He went on to travel the Wall until 2005, although not consistently. Also during this time he re-themed it the Wall of Fear, supposedly so that he could take it to the Isle of Man TT races, they did not like the term ‘death’ being used!

He also broke his ankle twice during his ownership of the Wall and on both occasions it was Ken and Luke Fox who helped out by going to ride for him.

Eventually, however, Graham decided to sell up and the Wall was put up for auction but failed to reach its reserve. However, afterwards in a separate deal he sold it to Chris Palmer.

Open for the first time by Ken Fox at Haddenham

It opened at only a few selected events in his ownership until, in the winter of 2007/8, he decided to sell it and the Wall was purchased by the Ken Fox Troupe and has made several appearances during 2009 - many more are planned for 2010, see events page for details.