When Coventry was the world's 'bicycle city'

[dutchman]

Over a 100-year period there were more than 450 bicycle makers in the city



Long before it became the UK’s ‘motor city’ Coventry was the country’s ‘bicycle city’.

In truth, the fact it became motor city at all was down to its bicycle making history and the skills that had been developed.

Such was Coventry’s bicycle making prowess that over a 100-year period there were more than 450 bicycle makers in the city.

So, just how did that happen?

Bizarrely the roots of Coventry’s bicycle making can be perhaps traced back to the arrival of French immigrants in the 18th century.

Their silk and ribbon weaving skills helped Coventry become a clothing powerhouse.

The growth of the rag trade in the city paved the way for further industrialisation with Coventry developing a number of key industries - which included watch and clock making and the manufacture of sewing machines.

Bicycle making grew out of the sewing machine industry.

The Coventry Machinists Company, which originally made sewing machines, was the first company in Britain to mass-produce bicycles.

Founded in 1863 as the Coventry Sewing Machine Company, it decided the best way to grow was to diversify.

The first velocipedes were becoming increasingly popular and in 1868 the company took an order for 400 of them to be exported to France.

However, a spanner in the works - in the shape of the Franco-Prussian War - saw the company concentrate on its home market instead.

The following year the company’s name was changed to the Coventry Machinists’ Company.

All this coincided with the emergence of one particular family - the Starleys - who would have a major impact on bicycle making.

James Starley was foreman of the Coventry Machinists Company and played a key role in making several improvements to basic velocipedes.

Not long after, in 1870, James Starley departed to go into business with William Hillman, of Hillman car fame.

They made great strides too, developing the Ariel, a lightweight all metal machine.

One of the first modern bicycles was invented in Coventry by James Starley’s nephew John Kemp (JK) Starley.

His brainchild was the Starley Safety Bicycle. Known as the ‘Rover’ it was produced by was produced by Rover from 1885.

It was the first bicycle to include modern features such as a chain driven rear wheel with equal-sized wheels on the front and rear.

Before its arrival most bicycles had been of the Penny-farthing design.

In 1886 Humber opened a factory in Coventry and by that time there were 248 cycle manufacturers based in Coventry, with the industry employing almost 40,000 workers.

By 1871 70 per cent of the cycle industry was concentrated in the Midlands.

Coventry’s Premier Cycle Company turned out 20,000 bicycles each year and claimed to have the largest bicycle factory in the world.

The good times continued and Coventry started to also develop its car industry.

Many firms such as Rover, Triumph, Riley, Singer and Swift did both.

By the 1890s the cycle trade was truly booming and Coventry had developed the largest bicycle industry in the world.

The city became internationally recognised as a place where only the very best machines were made and the name ‘Coventry’ itself became a stamp of quality engineering and fine craftsmanship.

As well as the afore-mentioned names there were companies like Dunlop, Hobart and Premier.

The tide began to turn from 1896 onwards though and Coventry lost out to Birmingham, which eventually took over as the centre of the industry.

The industry contracted in Coventry and only a few survived - including Bayliss and Thomas, Coventry Eagle, Rudge-Whitworth, Swift and Triumph.

As the car industry took hold there was a further decline from 1925 onwards, with Singer, Swift, Riley and Triumph bailing out of the bicycle side of their businesses.

By the end of the Second World War there were only two Coventry bicycle makers remaining - Associated Cycle Manufacturers and Coventry Eagle.

Both carried on into the 1950s, though Associated Cycle Manufacturers was taken over by Raleigh in 1954 and the city’s cycle making came to an end in 1959 when Coventry Eagle moved to Smethwick in 1959.

It is perhaps hard to imagine now that Coventry at one time was the biggest producer of bicycles in the world.

Like long gone car makers some of the famous names live on in roads like Starley Road.

Coventry’s place in bicycle making history is such that a book has even been written about it.,

Coventry’s Bicycle Heritage by Damien Kimberley, published by The History Press, is illustrated with more than 100 images from Coventry History Centre, many previously unpublished, and the first book of its kind to cover the history of Coventry bicycle manufacturing and the people who built them.

You can find out about the book and order it here.

[Melisandre]

My favourite is the Penny Farthing

[20A-Manor House]

A pic of me sitting on a Coventry made 'Ordinary'. 1880's Rudge.