mark's post here reminded me that i owe him some info re jim collier who he references here. fwiw, when we were in s.e, london at witcomb, jim collier was one of the frame builders there who taught us stuff. his bench was two down from mine. he was a great ol man was a fine disposition; at the time he was at least in his 60s, if not older, and never seemed ready to be done with it all. he was doing about a frame a week at that point. i remember him then being very proud to have trained ron cooper while they were both at gillott's. e-RICHIE Richard Sachs Cycles No.9, North Main Street Chester, CT 06412 USA http://www.richardsachs.com Tel. 860.526.2059
On Sat, 2 Nov 2002 21:59:27 -0000 "Mark Stevens"
<mountgerald@btopenworld.com> writes:
> Ron began his frame building career at A.S. Gillott in 1947. He
> learnt his
> skills under the watchful eye of Jim Collier who had built for
> Hobbs of
> Barbican pre war. Gillott's had 5 builders at the peak of production
> around
> 1950; Jim Collier, Bill Philbrook, Len Truman, George Holt and Ron.
> Ron
> remained as sole builder into the 60's. In 1963 Edwardes took over
> and Ron
> carried on building Gillotts. He left this concern in 1967 to set up
> his own
> shop in Honor Oak. He would still build a Gillott then as one exists
> as
> 686037. (year of build 1968. frames built to that date 6037. ) I
> have seen a
> Fleur de Lis track bike dated 1969 but it is not on the register.
> Mark Stevens. Dingwall . Marque Enthusiast for A.S.Gillott
> for the
> Veteran Cycle Club