Interesting History via Les

Here's a potential bit of interest for especially the 'old timers' eg Parker! Recent new member Phil Charlson of our local Cumbria Classic Car Club (I'm Membership Sec & Treasurer) has interesting  cycling history and happy for this to be published verbatim on our blog.

I was a Bolton Clarion man, joined at 12 and had to sign a pledge never to mention the CTC. We did once play the local CTC group (football) and I got kicked black and blue, being a lightweight 14 at the time. Dad had strong links with the Clarion too and his St Helen’s road shop was a social meeting place on Saturday mornings,could be an inconvenience at times. He also had ties with the Leigh Premier Road Club which I joined in the mid 70’s after after the Clarion in Bolton sadly ceased to exist.

Dad was best known as a ‘Lightweight’ dealer and one of the very best wheel builders in Lancashire. Of course I thought I was just as good! He allowed me to put spokes in hubs at 11 and I was building complete wheels by 13 and often built 5 or more pairs a day during school hols. and Saturdays. We used to do some of the traditional stuff like tying and soldering track wheels, guess not many would even know what that is now. I built the ‘sprint wheels’ ,that are still on my old bike, when I was 15. New ‘tubs’ of course and a new rim on the back after being brought down heavily during a road race near Milnthorpe. Pretty badly ‘banged up’ but still went to the local Palais that night. Mentioned it to my wife years later

and she said “yes I know I was there” to which I replied ‘I must have cut an heroic figure” she said “no you looked a bloody pratt”.

Back to dad, if I haven’t bored you to death by now. He and a friend had a bike/hardware shop in Tyldesley before the war, he did the bikes. When the war started he was called up to the RAF and with his background assigned to ground crew working mainly on Lancasters. Later in the war he was shipped of to Australia with a Squadron of Mosquito’s and was on a carrier outside Fremantle on VJ Day . Finally arrived back home late 1946 that there were no homes or jobs promised by the new Labour Gov.  He finally borrowed £50 and rented his first shop ,bike parts were in short supply and he supplemented his income shoe repairs , bike respray’s and selling whatever sports gear he could get hold of. I remember that, well into the 50’s ,he would get a tip-off that some wholesaler or other had inner tubes or tyres or pedals etc. and I’d be packed off with mum on the bus or train to Manchester or Preston or wherever, to buy what we could carry.

He retired in 1988, it was a sad day for me as it had been such a large part of my life for so many years ,I loved it and worked every Saturday and all my school holidays there. It’s still a bike shop though.