There are certainly not many framebuilders active in the Uk these days, and fewer still with any stock of old lugs, chainstays twin-plate fork crowns etc etc
Bob Jackson, Mercian, Argos, Arthur Caygill, Neil Orrell ( in the shadow of the Manchester velodrome!) come to mind.
I have recently been taking stock of my tubes, lugs etc etc and, after a considerable lay-off due to spending much time in France renovating a property there, I have just started building again, and may consider undertaking a few road-paths to order.
To create a truly 50s looking, very authentic frame I still have four sets of round-to-round rapid taper chainstays- an indispensable feature of all top road-path frames - several sets of Nervex Pro lugs, a couple of sets of EKLA cast lugs (much used and tweaked in the day by 40sand50s builders) several sets of 50s track drop-outs, sixty-nine twin-plate round fork crowns, eight pairs of round track blades, several sets of hand-cut lugs..Oh! and four Jack Taylor curved seat tubes, a couple of other 50s compound curved seat tubes. ..and about twenty sets of Haden Concorde very long point lugs. I would also seriously consider building twin-seat tubeb a la Saxon frames..or bi-laminated or fully bronze-welded frames.
I am not an avaricious man, but have spent far too many years, like the vast bulk of UK builders, building excellent custom-made frames at modest prices, because that was what the market in the UK demanded for so long. I shudder at times when I read some of the prices being fetched by rather crappy frames on Ebay such as that brand new old stock green Helyett, last week, If you look at the head tube picture and then examine the brazing on the L/H side of the upper head-lug, you will see that you could almost put your finger nail in the gap.
I am open to suggestions, projects WHY. Any frame needs to be stimulating as well as financially worth putting the effort into it..otherwise I will probably buy another house in France and sublimate my desires that way. My present house in France has large stone barns and I'm tempted to start up over there. The village is called Thauvenay - TOE-VAN-AY (just outside Sancerre). The marque name that interests me at the moment is Bernard Thauvenay ! Does it sound familiar?
Norris Lockley..Settle UK (Ancient Keeper of the Flame)