1934 250cc D.S.1

This 250cc racer lives in the  S.E. of England and was purchased by me in 1997 as an unfinished project, which took about 3yrs to complete. It took that amount of time because until Jeff contacted me in 2007 I was only aware of one other Stevens which lives somewhere in Dorset, I have not been able to contact the owner.
Every avenue I took to try and find information about the Stevens marque drew a blank so until last year when I saw Jeffs 350 I had no idea what a Stevens should look like, so most of my bike was built by pure guess work.
The information I have about this machine came from the previous owner who had known about this bike for many years so knew a bit about its history.
The little 250 has been a race machine all of its life and was very competitive, in the 1960s it was converted to a grass track bike and unfortunately lost its front wheel and forks, teles were fitted and the foot rests were altered, I am told it performed very well until it blew up and was thrown into a barn and left there until it was discovered  by the previous owner who started the restoration. Mid restoration his shop went bust and he was forced to sell the bike.
I had for a few years seen and admired this bike but he would not sell it to me so when I new it was up for sale I was first in the queue and my wife bought it as my 50th birthday present.
As this bike was built as a racer was it a works machine? Or was it built for someone? Maybe a race team, which I very much doubt because in those days you either raced as an individual or for a manufacturer as advertising, so any information would be very welcome and maybe someone knows this bike, can you help?

1934 250cc D.S.1 Racer

The Stevens` brothers had long been associated with racing and speed. During their A.J.S days they produced many world beating bikes competing successfully at Brooklands and the Isle of Man T.T, national and international trials, Grand Prix and record attempts. Each trophy and the associated press coverage helping to increase sales.
This continued in the 1930`s with the works rider Tommy Deadman finding some success with the Stevens 500cc.

A Mr K B Norris must have been impressed by the pedigree, as he was confident enough not only to buy a 250cc Stevens but to enter it in the 1934 National Rally.
He was the overall winner of the event and completed almost exactly 800 miles in the alloted 27 hours. All this on bumpy pot-holed roads with little street lighting, rudimentary sign posting and on a girder forked rigid machine with just a couple of springs under the saddle for comfort.
My thanks to David Wright on the Isle of Man for this information

It was also reported in the motorcycle press in April 1935, that A. A. Smith had won the Army Cup at the Services Trial held at Stokenchurch. His mount was also a 250 Stevens.
The team award at the Harvest Moon Trial, organised by the Woolwich and Plumstead Club, went to the South Reading M.C.C. aided by P. S. Goldsmith riding a 498cc Stevens.
Tommy Deadman recieved a First-class award at the Stroud Open Team Trial on the 249cc Stevens in October 1934.
A third class award was won by a R. B. Cave on a 349 Stevens at the West of England Trial in Oct `36.
There was a report on the Scottish Six Days Trial in the May `36 issue of Motor Cycling in which was mentioned under the heading `STEVENS` ... `J. Paterson. (346cc.) (?) 23 marks lost. This laddie did very well indeed, but failures on the Devil`s Staircase, The Ravine and Tombain ruined his chances of gaining anything other than a Silver Plaque`.