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Raleigh rides into history

It was only a matter of days ago that Raleigh announced it would no longer be making bicycles at its Radford headquarters. The site, sandwiched between Triumph Road and Faraday Road, would still assemble and paint the machines, but there would be no more direct manufacturing.
Now new managing director Phillip Darnton, who took over the reins of the company on Tuesday, has told the workforce that the firm is to relocate to a new "brownfield" site, which is yet to be identified.
The site is being sold to the University of Nottingham to form an extension to its Jubilee Campus.
It is not an exercise in shedding jobs, Mr Darnton said yesterday.
Indeed, he said the move would be an opportunity to produce even more bicycles.
But for some the loss of one of Nottingham's most famous names from the core of the city - even if it is for pastures new - is an occasion which is bound to be tinged with sadness.
Fred Culley, 64, of Newthorpe Common, Eastwood, worked on the yard gang at Raleigh for 18 years. He said: "It was the heart of the community. We all used to work closely there, and it was family orientated."
"I know it has got smaller but it's still a blow."

THE RALEIGH YEARS

1887: Raleigh Cycle Company founded by Sir Frank Bowden.

1896: Company moves from four-storey building in Russell Street to seven-and-a-half-acre site in Radford.

1902: A new department making Sturmey Archer gears is created, after Frank Bowden is approached by Henry Sturmey and James Archer

1914: Half the production capacity - now totalling 50,000 bicycles a year - is turned over to munitions work.

1921: Sir Frank dies and company is taken over by his son, Sir Harold Bowden.

1939: Normal cycle production severely curtailed as Raleigh begins its contribution to the war effort.

1952: A ten-acre extension is opened by the Duke of Edinburgh.

1957: Another new extension - a £5m factory covering 20 acres - is built.

1960s: Around 8,500 staff are employed by the company

1970: The first appearance of the Raleigh Chopper

1982: The Burner BMX range is launched, and sells half a million is less than two years.

1985: Raleigh builds its first mountain bike.

1989: Production stands at 771,000 bicycles

1991: The firm's workforce falls from 1,800 to 1,200 year as the recesssion starts to bite.

1996: The number of staff falls to 800.

Frederick West, 57, of St Ann's Well Road in St Ann's, who works in the stores at the site, said: "A lot of people are going to be sad."
"A lot of the older people will certainly miss it. It's part of their heritage."
The site opened in 1896, when Raleigh relocated from its premises in Russell Street.
At the time the seven-and-a-half-acre site was the world's biggest cycle factory.
The firm continued to flourish and played a key role in both world wars.

Munitions
During the 1914-18 conflict, the factory supplied the Government with bicycles, including the Scout and the Military models, but it also managed to turn over half its production capacity to munitions work.
In the Second World War, the company became the largest manufacturer of artillery fuses and 20mm cartridge cases in the country.
Members of the Royal family made a number of trips to the factory, including a visit by the Princess of Wales in 1990.
And throughout its history the Radford site has been an integral part of the community.
Tool-setter Ainsley Letford, 53, of Anslow Avenue in Lenton Abbey, said: "I've been there since 1965.
"When I started, 8,000 people worked there, but it still used to be really friendly.
"There was a time when it seemed everybody used to work here.
"I am concerned about where it's going, because if I can't cycle there, I won't be able to go there."


YOUR CHANCE TO HAVE YOUR SAY

MICK ASHTON, 55, of Mosswood Crescent in Bestwood Park, a distribution driver who has worked at Raleigh for 13 years: "It's a sad day. It will have a detrimental effect on the local economy. But it had to come because land is a valuable asset. It won't affect the quality of machines."	FRED CULLEY, 64, of Newthorpe Common in Eastwood, who worked at Raleigh for 18 years: "I feel sad. It was absolutely brilliant working there. "Whole families worked there, and everybody knew everybody. It won't be the same."

NEALE HASKEY, 52, landlord of the White Horse pub in Ilkseton Road: "A lot of people who work at Raleigh and come in, also use the place at the weekends. "I'm disappointed more than anything. The area is being decimated."	GEOFF PERRY, 60, owner of the Supreme Fish and Chip Bar in Wollaton Road: "I feel very sad at the passing of the Raleigh site. It's a loss to the history of Radford. " I was an engineer, and when you left school it was either Rolls-Royce or Raleigh."

PETER DARBY, 43, owner of Balfour and Darby Newsagents in Wollaton Road: "We do get a lot of early morning trade, which we will miss. It's bound to have an impact on the area. "Not as big as in the mid-1980s, but you don't like to lose any business."	AINSLEY LETFORD, 53, of Anslow Avenue in Lenton Abbey, a tool-setter who has worked at Raleigh for 35 years: "It does bother me, but what can we do? It's a really different place now - it used to be like a little village. "I think it's sad for the area."

The fictionalised lives of the workers at the factory even played a central role centre stage in one of the key British novels of the late 1950s. Neale Haskey is the landlord of the White Horse on Ilkeston Road, the pub immortalised in the opening scenes of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.
He said: "I've only been here for five years, but even in that time things have changed.
"We used to get a lot of trade from there - this place used to be packed out.
"But it has dropped over the last five years.
"There will be more students in the area, but they have their own bars on campus."
The end is not yet nigh for the famous old site.
Raleigh, which employs 600 workers, has been given up to four years to move out of the 21-acre site.
It plans to assemble more than half a million bikes this year, and hopes that this is a number which can be increased as it becomes more cost effective.
But before long, none of them will be assembled in Radford.
Perhaps the most telling sign of the times is a new pub, which has opened for just three months in Wollaton Road - and called the Handle Bar. The venue is only a hundred or so yards away from the main Raleigh entrance and with its carefully chosen name and a bicycle hanging up in the main bar, the owners would seem to be clearly in touch with the industrial history of the area.
But as manager Ted Eglington, 25, explained: "Raleigh is the theme for the area and the theme for the pub.
"But it's just a theme.
"We get about four or five lads from Raleigh in here at lunchtimes.
"We are for the students, really. We chose the name just because it's a theme."

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