Classic British Frame Builders Mapped - New Website

[raleighnut]

Wally Green, the ex-speedway rider (for West Ham), made frames at 21 Vivian Avenue, Hendon Central N.W.4. He also built for other manufacturers, according to someone who worked for him:

"Some of the other trade names we built for:
Sid Mottram, Jackson of Leeds, Carter & Hall (Portsmouth), Shepherds of Poole, Hindes, Ernie Whitcombe, Fred Dean, Claud Butler, Dave Davey, Jensen of South Africa, Hobbs Brothers, Lomas of Oxford, Alan Shorter, Ivor Clark of Harrow, Mal Rees. There must have been many others that I can't remember off hand. We also built under our own name for a very large percentage of NW London racing cyclists.

We also did quite a lot of frame repairs. Mainly cutting or melting out corroded seat pillars, handlebar stems and what we called double tubers. These were where the rider had invariably gone into the back of a car or bus and bent the top and down tubes. These were cut out and completely replaced. The frames we built for Claud Butler were when his business was nearing its end (it was alleged that he was drinking all the profits of the firm!)."

Yep, Sid Mottram never made a frame and yet he was probably the most famous Leicester shop, Mercian in Derby made frames for him too.

 

[Kempstonian]

Yep, Sid Mottram never made a frame and yet he was probably the most famous Leicester shop, Mercian in Derby made frames for him too.

The Alan Shorter name was a surprise in that list, considering his company made their own frames. classiclightweights.co.uk says that Harold Peters was the frame builder for Alan Shorter until the mid-60s. Then Vic Edwards took over as the frame builder, possibly in 1965 but could have been a bit before then. Barry Chick builds the frames now." Maybe they used Wally Green to build frames when they were too busy to make them?

 

[Kempstonian]

I'll throw in a couple of makers local to me:

‘Ephgrave Lightweights Ltd.’ at the Aveley Works, Aveley Road Clapton, London. Aveley Road no longer exist on any maps but Ephgrave's is described as being behind Henley's Garage which is now a Shell Garage at 150 Upper Clapton Road, E5 9JZ. There are workshops behind the garage but they look to modern to have been Ephgrave's.

I love Ephgrave bikes. Years ago the guy who got me into cycling had one - a metallic grey with amazingly intricate lugwork - and I was so jealous! I was thinking earlier that if the bikes in our club were still around today they would be worth a small fortune!

My mate John had one of these:

... but for some reason his didn't have the 'e' at the end of 'Speciale'. I wonder if they produced some for the British market perhaps?
Here's John's bike... notice the name on the downtube is in a slightly different typeface too (I don't think he had it resprayed).

 

[Hacienda71]

Pemberton Arrow started on Ashton Old Rd Manchester later in Sale. My old man had a 1937 lightweight frame. @fossyant I am sure can shed some light on Herety frames.

 

[fossyant]

Frank Herety frames built on Higher Hillgate Stockport. Usually painted at C&G Finishers in Liverpool. Dad of John Herety.

 

[nonowt]

Aveley Rd ran North-South between Mount Pleasant Lane and Southwold Rd, crossing the railway at the Northern end. The alignment would intersect with the present western boundary of Detmold Rd. The street was still extant in 1954 at least.

ah, thanks for that. I've found Aveley Road on an old map now - I didn't realise it was so far from the main road (Upper Clapton Rd). Interestingly on google earth you can see the remaining bit of the road where it crosses the railway cutting.

An interesting South London one: Evelyn Hamilton 416A Streatham High Road (now part of a Bathroom shop)

Back in East London: Jack Baguley, 48 Crossway, Stoke Newington N16 8BE. Unfortunately the building was demolished and replaced by a rather unattractive council estate in the 70's, so it's hard to pin point the spot.

 

[Illaveago]

Sorry still suffering frm a cold when I posted so not thinking too clearly.

I found my post about a Bath cycle maker. It was Les Vince Invincible Cycles Bath. Originally started in Northgate Street Bath and had shops at 7a Northgate Street and Broad Street Bath.

 

[Gatters]

CEC Duckworth, Hyde Cheshire

 

[netman]

Thanks for all the great info so far... I'm still playing with ideas and formatting - trying a few different things out, but all the info will go up as time allows. I've asked a couple of well known classic lightweight sites for permission to quote short excerpts and link to them, so then I can concentrate on the map rather than duplicating info that is already out there as someone rightly said.

The Witcomb pin in Deptford is an example of what I'm thinking - click on the pin and you get a panel slide in that gives some brief information and then you have the link to more information and google maps to investigate further if you want to. First issue I've come up against is that I'd like to label the pins, but you can't do that in Google MyMaps. Looking into possible solutions for that at the moment.

 

[netman]

Also... posted this in 'Wanted'... thought it may help!

I'm seeking any old issues of cycling magazines you may have lying around. I'll be using these to help pinpoint locations of classic British frame builders (mostly hand built, rather than mass produced) around the UK and to gather information on 'what, when and where'.

Happy to reimburse costs of postage, but these are for research rather than for profit, so can't afford to pay much (if anything!) for the magazines themselves.

Particularly looking for 1900's {earlier the better} to say mid-80's, even later if it references builders such as Witcomb that kept going until more recently.

In return, I'm happy to scan and post anything here that may help other members - if it's out of copyright of course.

All help greatly appreciated...

 

[Kempstonian]

Also... posted this in 'Wanted'... thought it may help!

I'm seeking any old issues of cycling magazines you may have lying around. I'll be using these to help pinpoint locations of classic British frame builders (mostly hand built, rather than mass produced) around the UK and to gather information on 'what, when and where'.

Happy to reimburse costs of postage, but these are for research rather than for profit, so can't afford to pay much (if anything!) for the magazines themselves.

Particularly looking for 1900's {earlier the better} to say mid-80's, even later if it references builders such as Witcomb that kept going until more recently.

In return, I'm happy to scan and post anything here that may help other members - if it's out of copyright of course.

All help greatly appreciated...

I don't have any unfortunately, but I wonder if anybody might be prepared to lend you some? That way you could scan anything of interest and then send the mags back. No cost to you other than postage and the owner(s) wouldn't have to part with their memorabilia!

 

[netman]

I don't have any unfortunately, but I wonder if anybody might be prepared to lend you some? That way you could scan anything of interest and then send the mags back. No cost to you other than postage and the owner(s) wouldn't have to part with their memorabilia!

Yep, absolutely - loans would work too... thanks... or photos/scans of adverts and/or features on frame builders.

 

[nonowt]

Looking great. Already starting to have the makings of a really good resource.

This is a pretty obscure one. I came across a '50s RA Blackwell bike on ebay last year:

RA Blackwell, 419 Hackney Road, E2 (the building was knocked down a few years ago and replaced by Re:Hotel).

There's almost no information about Blackwell's online aside from some repro decals and a mention of Hilary Stone having one the frames a view years ago. I wishes I'd saved a picture of the ebay frame. oh, here's the decal and I'm guess this must be the Hilary Stone sourced one.

 

[Kempstonian]

Here's a few on the Bay... there are more but it could work out expensive to buy too many of them

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-...225606?hash=item5465073b46:g:E5wAAOSwDAdb1XcM
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-...889559?hash=item5b484adc57:g:8MwAAOSw3ndbDt6u
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-...664365?hash=item545bb24bed:g:TWUAAOSwN-la9D8~
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-...214037?hash=item5b47897295:g:VuQAAOSwyKta9pxz

 

[Kempstonian]

Or if you're feeling rich...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/The-Bicy...184484?hash=item1a786748e4:g:qgYAAOSw6gRbmVOv