Butler, Claud

Claud Butler was a founder member of the LMA (Lightweight Manufacturers’ Association), which later became the LCMA (Lightweight Cycle Manufacturers’ Association). However, his association with this body was curtailed.

In the late thirties Claud Butler began to experiment with bronze-welded construction without the use of the usual proprietary lug castings. This was a technique used by continental frame builders that had been taken up by one or two English marques. It was a construction method that would become a feature of the Claud Butler range. Lugless ‘welded’ frames were often regarded as an inferior alternative to lugged ‘brazed’ frames, as the lugless frames demanded less labour.

By 1948 the ‘Avant Coureur’, a model using ‘Bilaminated’ construction had been introduced. This consisted of decorative sleeves pressed from flat-sheet steel being applied in place of lugs, and necessitated a mixture of bronze-welding and capillary-brazing techniques to produce distinctive and ornate ‘faux-lug’ designs. Not only was this construction method aesthetically pleasing, it was also superior in strength to the established methods of joining lightweight steel tubing. It also saved labour and avoided the necessity for lug castings which were sometimes difficult to obtain during a time when British industry was forced to concentrate on export trade.

By the late thirties Claud Butler had established five retail branches across London, as well as a ‘Midlands Depot’ in Nottingham and the ‘works’ at Clapham Manor Street. The number of shops was consolidated to four at the resumption of full trading after the end of hostilities in 1945. Great success continued through the late forties and into the early fifties, with Claud Butler celebrating his Jubilee ‘in the game’ in 1953. By the mid-fifties the glory days were over, with club cycling beginning to lose favour as a popular activity across Britain. Several manufacturers’ records show a sudden dip in production from the early fifties onwards.

The phasing-out of war-time rationing, as well as increased affluence throughout the population, brought aspirations towards consumerism and motorized transport. This was at odds with the simple pleasures of club cycling. The ultimate distraction – television – also became more affordable at this time, with many thousands of households equipping themselves to watch the live broadcast of the Queen’s Coronation in 1953. In the mid-to-late fifties Britain’s lightweight trade was in serious decline, with several prominent marques relocating and downsizing, becoming amalgamated or simply packing up for good. Claud’s finances were in a poor state and a large sum owing to the taxman put the final nail in the coffin. Claud Butler’s business was declared bankrupt. The Clapham Manor Street works closed in 1956, and so ended the Claud Butler empire and production of real Claud Butler cycles.

Claud Butler was a showman-entrepreneur who had grasped every available opportunity to promote and develop a successful business. For instance, how many other quality lightweight manufacturers promoted an annual ‘do’ with a dance band and cabaret acts, or produced a pin badge, or were active sponsors of well known international riders, or placed regular display advertising in Cycling, or used their proprietor’s personality in the form of a cartoon caricature, or marked their jubilee with special models, or claimed to be both “The King of Lightweights” and “Just one of the boys”?   Nobody else in the trade was able to equal the zest or flamboyance of Claud Butler.

Each aspect of Claud Butler’s business was closely overseen by the proprietor in person. Frames were produced to a high standard, with originality and a distinct flair as well as offering good value for money.  Claud Butler was certainly the premier – and most prolific – marque amongst British lightweight cycles in the heyday of British club cycling in the middle of the last century. The sad fate that has befallen the Claud Butler name, ever since 1957, has put an undeserved tarnish on what really should be celebrated as a shining example of quality, flair, self- promotion and business acumen.

Claud Butler established an important and endearing legacy. Some of Britain’s most celebrated ‘artisan’ frame builders either began their careers or spent time sweating over a gas torch and firebricks at Claud’s Clapham Manor Street workshop just either side of the war. That roll of honour includes such exalted names as Purves, Ephgrave, Morris, Skeates and Hurlow.

The Claud Butler marque continues to this day, but ever since the sale of the Claud Butler name in 1957, the marque has simply been a valuable label for the shameless re-branding of generic and characterless products by a succession of exploitative trade-mark owners. Had the marque been allowed to end with the bankruptcy, then Claud Butler would surely be celebrated today as an equal to the most sought after names within our interest. After a couple of failed attempts to return to business in the lightweight cycle trade, a chronic illness finally claimed Claud Butler’s life in 1978. (See additions by Mick Butler below which has extracts from Cycling and Mopeds showing that Claud Butler re-opened a new business in 1959 after selling the original business to Holdsworth 1958/9)

The author currently owns three original Claud Butler cycles, including the grey and red 1937 Anglo-Continental shown in Readers’ Bikes.

Derek Athey: drew attention to the following ‘snippet’ from Cycling:
3 September 1947 – World’s Champion Reg Harris is to be a director of a new £100,000 cycle company to be formed by the lightweight cycle manufacturer Claud Butler.  The new company to be called Claud Butler Ltd. will eventually take over C B’s works at  Clapham, London. Co-directors with Harris will be Claud Butler and his works manager Stuart Purves.