I've just learned that Ernie Worrell, one of the great names in Scottish lightweight framebuilding, died on January 4.
Ernie was in his 90s and was one of the last-possibly THE last-remaining links with the halcyon days of the craft in Scotland.
Frames carrying the Worrell name had an excellent reputation in this country. They were not fancy-looking bikes-at least not those I've seen-but were very well executed.
Ernie himself was a lovely old guy. I visited him at his Hamilton home a few months ago and it was like being transported back to the 1950s. He opened a cupboard in the dining room, climbed up a ladder and pulled out envelopes containing original transfers for many of the great British marques. If you wanted to buy some transfers, you'd be out of luck but if you desperately needed something for a restoration, Ernie was only too glad to help.
He showed me photographs taken at trade fairs all over the UK from the 1940s onwards and then took me out to his shed. In a corner, behind planks of wood, tools, a lawnmower, etc, was his own bike. It hadn't been used for years and was covered in dust. I really wanted to have a good look at it but there was just too much stuff in the way.
A cupboard on a wall of the shed had old framebuilding tools and general bike tools dating back decades. There were also a few old Primus stoves with the fitment for clamping them to the underside of the top tube for camping trips or just a "drum up" or tea-making session at the side of the road.
I last spoke to Ernie a few weeks ago. I'd been meaning to go through and pick up F.C. Parkes and Holdsworth transfers. I was also going to take a camera and get some photographs for the Scottish lightweight cycles website I'm planning. This time, I was going to make sure we got his old bike out for one last curtain call.
A friend of mine has the last Worrell ever made. It was an apprentice piece that someone had been working on when Ernie shut up shop years ago. Ernie took it home and hung it in his shed. My pal managed to get it, minus the forks, and completed it by using another set of forks, making a jig and bending the blades to the same pattern as an original Worrell. The bike went back to Ernie for final approval and was given an encouraging nod and full permission for the addition of Worrell transfers.
The word gentleman is much over-used nowadays but Ernie qualifed no matter what the criteria. A great old guy who will be sadly missed.
Bruce