I just received an interesting bit of documentation accompanying a 40s Chater Lea chainset bought on EBay. The seller, who is in Bradford, U.K., sent photocopies of two pictures of his dad racing on a Claud Butler in the late-40s - the pictures show the chainset in use! The first picture shows it with a 52-tooth CL ring (without the CL cut-outs(!?)) and the second show a 47-tooth ring with the customary CL. He sent both chainrings. The chainset has been rechromed - although not that well and the Chater lea lettering is gone from one side and badly worn on the other. The larger chain-ring has not been rechromed but is in reasonably good shape. But, somehow these things don't seem to matter to me as I now have a connection to that man in the pictures and an image of these cranks in use. That is provenance!! Now, they won't be fitted to a CB, but will be used for an appropriate project. I am also not sure what I am going to do with the 52-tooth chain-ring as my knees would prefe r me to set-up with the 47, these days!
BTW the chap in the picture had the last name Hodson and wore a jersey with Leeds [??] on the front! Anyone remember him?
Paul Williams, Ottawa, ON, Canada
Dr. Paul B. Williams, BAH, MPhil, PhD Instructor, Dept. of Geography and Environmental Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada