"Raleigh Cycles"
January 2003 Meeting Report
Guest Speaker - Chris Millidge
The first meeting in 2003 of the Keyworth & District Local History Society was held in the Centenary Lounge on January 3rd, 2003. The audience was rather small, perhaps due to a large extent on the very cold weather. Our guest speaker, Chris Millidge, himself a member of our Society, entertained us with a history of the bicycle, with particular reference, to “The Raleigh”.
Raleigh bikes, we were told, achieved that hallmark of success that very few brand names manage to attain. Namely, their name is synonymous with the product, so much so that the brand becomes the product. Thus a Hoover is a vacuum cleaner, a Rolex is a watch, and a Raleigh is a bicycle. The name became known throughout the Empire and, indeed, the whole World. Raleigh was synonymous with quality and reliability, essential qualities in many of the regions of the World where the bicycle was the only means of affordable transport for millions of people.
Strangely, Raleigh came into the bicycle market at quite a late stage in the development of the machine. The whole of the development of the bicycle was encapsulated in about 60 years of the 19th Century. The original concept is credited to a Bavarian Count in the year 1816. His was a very rudimentary design known as the Dandy Horse. The machine was more for fun than a serious form of transport. The Dandy Horse did however catch the imagination of the gentry for whom it became quite the thing to be seen on. Indeed, the bicycle as a means of transport was not a logical mode of transport at all. Two wheels, on the face of it, being inherently unstable.
The cycling “craze” of the early 19th Century had all but disappeared when in 1840 Kirkpatrick Macmillan devised a system of cranks and pedals for propelling the rear wheel. So successful was the design that, for short distances, the bicycle could outpace the stagecoach. The Velocipede was the next development of the bicycle though it’s large heavy wooden frame earned it the nickname of the “Boneshaker”. However, once again the development of the bicycle stagnated. Indeed, for a time the tricycle became the favoured form of the machine. However the, strangely, inherent instability of the tricycle meant that it’s popularity was relatively short lived.
The actual term “Bicycle” did not appear until 1869 when the advent of metal, spoked wheels, rubber tyres, and the diamond shaped frame began to be seen. However no bicycle as yet had any gearing and this made them hard to ride. One solution to this problem presented itself in the form of the “Penny Farthing”, so named because of the disparate sizes of the front and rear wheels. Indeed, the front wheel in some cases was as large as 7ft in diameter. They must have been hideously difficult to ride, notwithstanding this by the end of the 1870’s over 50,000 had been produced. One group of intrepid riders covered the journey from Lands End to John O’Groats on their machines in sixteen days. One factor, which helped to make the bicycle popular, was the relatively quiet roads of the period. The railways had achieved a high degree of monopoly on the transportation of goods so there was very little commercial traffic on the roads.
By the late 1880’s the bicycle had developed into pretty much the machine that we are so familiar with today. All the basic fundamentals of the design were now present. Along with the spoked wheels, rubber tyres and diamond frame came the sloping front forks, direct steering, the sprocket and chain and brakes that worked, (usually!) The 1890’s saw the advent of the Dunlop pneumatic tyre, by which time the bicycle was a relatively comfortable, safe, and cheap means of transport. By this time the bicycle industry was centred on Coventry although the industry was comprised of many small companies. Indeed, there were around 170 businesses constructing bicycles in Coventry at that time, mostly on a very small scale.
Enter onto the stage a lawyer named Frank Bowden. He had pursued a successful career in Hong Kong but the climate had ruined his health. He returned to England and, as part of his recuperation, took to cycling as part of his fitness regime. In 1887 he bought a bicycle from a small manufacturer in Raleigh Street, Lenton, where tree bicycles a week were being made. Frank Bowden was so impressed with the bicycle and how efficacious the exercise had been for his recovery that he decided to invest in the business and, to that end, bought the small concern. By 1889 the workforce had been increased to around 200 employees and over 60 cycles a week were being produced. That same year the company Raleigh was floated for £20,000. This figure was very soon increased to £100,000. Also a young man named Mills was hired as designer for the lordly sum of £1,000 per annum. The company also relocated itself on a new 5-acre site on Faraday Road. Raleigh was great believers in advertising and promoted sports cycling heavily. They were very successful and Raleigh machines won many, many races. One of Raleigh’s more famous adverts acquainted the public with the knowledge the Raleigh was the “All Steel Bicycle”. Most other cycles were too but it was Raleigh who cottoned on to the fact that it was a selling point.
In 1903 the Sturmey-Archer three speed hub appeared and to all intents and purpose the bicycle was fully developed. All further developments were basically improvements on existing concepts.
The bicycle industry has, historically been an unstable business, characterised by constant peaks and troughs. At one time, in the early 20th Century Raleigh even diversified into motorcar and motorcycle manufacture. The situation didn’t last for very long though and Raleigh reverted to concentrating on bicycle production again. One innovation that helped Raleigh to weather one of their habitual troughs was the introduction of selling their machines on hire purchase. This proved extremely successful and generated considerable trade for the company. In 1900 the Raleigh Industries Gradual Payments department was set up whereby working class people could buy their bicycles by weekly instalments. This was such an outstanding success that by 1907 Raleigh’s output had increased to 30,000 cycles a year.
The advent of the Great War was a further boon to Raleigh. Not only was the demand for cycles from the Armed Forces considerable but the company also manufactured armaments.
However, when the war ended in 1918 Raleigh found themselves in one of their familiar troughs. In 1914 the cost of a new bicycle averaged £9/-/-. By 1918 this had increased to £20/-/-. For a working class man that was a very considerable amount of money. However, competition from abroad, particularly from Germany, had the effect of lowering prices and production picked up again. So much so that by 1922 the factory site had increased to 11 acres. Raleigh also invested heavily in the sporting side of the business. Indeed, in the early 1920’s Raleigh was spending £100,000 per annum on advertising. So successful was the company that by 1930 the average cost of a cycle had fallen to £5/-/-. 1921 saw the death of Raleigh’s founder, Frank Bowden.
It was in the early 1930’s that Raleigh decided to enter the three-wheeled car market with the Raleigh 7. The idea proved unsuccessful and Raleigh abandoned the venture. However a small team of managers from the experiment were convinced of its long-term merits and left the company to set up their own business at Tamworth. The result was the foundation of the Reliant Car Company.
The year 1937 saw Raleigh celebrating the Golden Anniversary of their business and as a special treat the whole workforce was taken to the seaside for the day. With the outbreak of the Second World War Raleigh once again manufactured armaments as well as bicycles and the factories were in full production. After the war there was a shortage of bikes and Raleigh were fully occupied in satisfying a voracious market. The Faraday Road site was further increased in 1952 and further still in 1958 by which time it occupied 60 acres.
Raleigh, however were expanding at a time when the market was contracting. Shortages brought on by the war were receding and the second hand car market was bringing motorcars within the price range of more and more people. As before, Raleigh invested heavily in the sporting side of the business. Reg Harris, the champion cyclist who rode for Raleigh became a household name. Oddly enough, for all their fame Raleigh were not the largest cycle manufacturer in this country, that honour resided with Tube Industries, though their cycles were known by other names. Indeed, it was Tube Industries who rescued Raleigh in 1960 when the company was in a very serious trough. By that time the market was very depressed.
Post war Raleigh had developed their overseas markets and these accounted for a huge volume of sales. Countries like India and Pakistan were colossal markets. However, as these markets expanded, so the tendency was for each country to develop it’s own cycle industry. The end result was that Raleigh’s overseas markets eventually declined. One region where Raleigh had never been very active was the United States of America. Strangely, cycling in the U.S.A. had never really caught on as a cheap means of transport. It had tended to develop more as a child’s toy. Raleigh enjoyed a small amount of initial success in the U.S.A. but that market also disappeared. Cheap imports from the Pacific Rim countries sounded the death knell of Raleigh’s viability as a cycle manufacturer and by 2002 Raleigh had closed its factory gates for good. The demise of Raleigh Industries is the story of industrial decline in the United Kingdom in general. From being one of Nottingham’s “Big Three” along with Boots and Players it has ceased to exist. Nevertheless, along with Robin Hood Raleigh has been instrumental in making the name of Nottingham known throughout the world.