Up here in the North of England...in Settle to be exact...there is a phrase that expresses just how astonished a person is..."I am gob-smacked" Well...I am
Frank Ellingford seems to know an awful lot about the Bespoke Bicycle Company of Settle...even down to fairly accurate descriptions of a couple of the USWB models that I used to make in the 80/90s. I know that I built a number of track bikes that went down south, and a few road-racing frames, but I can only assume that the USWB jobs caught his eye during the early Sunday morning time-trials as many of the top testers used to travel the length and breadth of the country trying to pick the fastest courses.
You were even pretty close in the description of my premises - the six barrel-vaulted cellars of the Shambles - an old arched former block of butcher's shops - right in the middle of the Market Square.But that wasn't the workshop, that was just the showroom and sales shop. The workshop was just up the back road in a former, even older, slaughter-house and stables, complete with terrazzo floors and a half-brick missing from the bottom course of bricks, where the blood from the slaughtered cattle used to be swilled out into the drain.
I was pretty lax on numbering systems, but did try to keep a photgraphic record of every frame I made, and still have most of them. Being bespoke, every frame was a "one-off"..and totally unique. I DO intend to put some of the stuff into a digital form when I can get the hang of the soft and hardware.
Some years ago I started compiling some notes on the northern builders - I know the Yorkshire ones best - and tried to encourage members of the V C-C in Lancashire, and around Liverpool to do the same, but don't know whether anyone did anything about it. I do know that a V C-C member is writing up the Midlands scene, with Paragon, Aende (Pongo Braithewaite), Olympic, and many other smaller brands. However if we only put half of the small "bespoke" builders on Dale's site, it would increase at least double the present number in the British Isles section
Thanks for the mention, Frank...you made an old man happy...although I am not quite 17th century
Norris Lockley..Settle, UK