Fothergill, James

she remembers the shop being in Smithdown Road in 1956 when her father bought her first bike there. Her uncle still has a Fothergill bike which he rides until this day.

At the peak of the boom in cycling in the 1950’s his work force was 15 including four frame builders producing at their busiest period 5000 frames p.a. Fothergill specialised in fancy lugs and pioneered the oversize 1â…›” top tubes. Some of this output was sold in the trade for other shops to put their own names on. They also produced a number of tandems and a small number of trikes.

The death of Jim’s son Andrew at the age of 34 from a brain tumor in the late 1980’s was a cruel blow from which he never really recovered and he died in 2001. He was a member of Mersey Roads Club 1949 to 1990.”

I’m not sure if someone will remember but James Fothergill also built a ‘lugless’ frame.

Back in the mid 1960’s I acquired a lugless frame which was originally thought to be a ‘Paris’.  It was eventually identified as being a Fothergill.  It was in bad need a respray so I took it to Fothergills -then on Smithdown Road- who was so pleased to see it. He recommended, as always, that it be given to C&G Finishers (then in Back Falkner Street) for refurbishment.

Being a simple teenager (just) cash was tight but nevertheless I let Jim have it. Some two weeks later I went back to the shop and there in the shop was this magnificent magenta and gold bike frame that looked nothing like anything I could ever afford to own !!!  It was the talking point of the shop that Saturday.

Jim then surprised me and told me that there was NO CHARGE for the refurb just that I ‘look after it’. I had planned to take the frame home on the bus but Jim would have none of it and commandeered one of  his mates to run me home with the bike on the back seat!!.  I lovingly added the best of what I could afford to the bike and had it for some years during my membership at Walton C&AC.  At 15 I broke a leg and the bike was stored in a shed.  One of my old school mates eventually bought it from me and, I heard later, swapped it for a motorbike !!! I wish I could see the thing now, I would pay many a quid to get it back.

A friend has recently acquired a Fothergill frame and as he knew I bought a Fothergill some years ago he told me about your site. From 1938 until 1960, I lived in Upper Parliament Street in Liverpool 8 district. Fothergill’s shop in Smithdown Lane was about 200 yards from my house, at weekends there was always a large number of cyclists at the shop which was very busy all day. My parents bought me a Fothergill bike when I was thirteen in 1951/2. I ordered it to my own specification and I still have it. I gave it to one of my sons about 20 years ago and he changed a number of things like gears and a different chainwheel and hubs.

Fothergill had a small unit in a factory building in what was the Milner Safe company factory . The factory was occupied by a company called Pearsons during the war, the building sretched from Smithdown Lane alongside Aigburth Street to Upper Parliament Street. Fothergill had a very small unit and the entrance was just like a house door, this entrance was more or less oppositethe house where I lived.

The company Pearsons assembled most of the army lorries sent to the UK from America during the last war as most came into the UK through the Liverpool Docks, the factory was only about two miles from the docks. There is a web site which might be of interest giving details of the work undertaken by Pearsons during the war.

I thought you might be interested to know that a friend, Norman Fenn, and I co-own the magnificent Fothergill tandem built for Alan Griffiths and Jim Blackhurst to break the Liverpool to London RRA record and subsequently the 50 and 100-mile records back in 1954.  The tandem remains in almost original condition and earlier this year Alan and Jim were re-united with this machine after more than sixty years.  Unfortunately Alan has since died.