Hi Steven, I spoke to Ron Cooper today and asked him when he was left on his own as the sole builder at Gillotts. He remembered that George Holt was the last to leave and that was in about 1958. He was not absolutely sure so I would hazard a guess and say that from 1959 onwards all Gillotts were built by Ron Cooper. I have 696161 , a 22" track iron with Nervex lugs that is the last frame in the traditional numbering sequence. The 69 prefix being the year built and the 6161 being the number of frames built since inception in May 1945. There are some built in the 70's but the sequence differs. I have 7304 built in 1975. Or so I am told. More like 1973 I reckon. Old habits die hard. The Pink Peril dates from much later, an off topic mid to late 80's. It was built by Ron but was built for Bexley Spokes, a shop set up by Gary Edwardes, one of the family that bought Gillotts out in 1963. Ron says that he wanted to relaunch the Gillot marque so had some sets of frame building components milled with the Gillott name. It obviously hit problems which ended up with Gary selling the rights to the name to Mark Joynt of Omega Cycles. It still remains with him.
Mark Stevens Dingwall Scotland