James Fothergill - of Liverpool
More information is needed on Fothergill. One example is listed in Readers' Bikes. If you are able to supply any further details, please let us have them. Contact details are on the home page.
The first to respond with some details is Bob Williams of Mersey Roads Club who relates:
"James Fothergill was a well-known and respected dealer whose large shop at 250 Smithdown Lane would be full of club cyclists on most Saturdays.
He ran the successful business from 1938 to 1989. Some time in 1980 the premises were compulsorily purchased for road widening and the erection of milti-storey flats since demolished. At that time the business moved to premises at 23/25 Smithdown Road and then off Wavertree Road in Marmaduke Street. Here they repaired cycles and light motor cycles but the manufacture of the famous bike finished when they moved from Smithdown Lane.
However Sandra Pickersgill tells us that 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 1⅛" 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."
Tony Smith says:
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.
Mick Butler sends us a good scan of vinyl cuts for Fothergill and informs us that they are available from Rapier signs in Wisbech:
Rapier Signs
Sunbeam House, High Rd,
Guyhirn, Wisbech,
Cambridgeshire PE13 4EQ
Tel: 01945 450487
Below are some
images, showing
lug details, etc., of a Fothergill, believed mid-1950s which belongs to
Sam Lingo
who restored it in the original colours after having decals made.
Also included is a scan of the original head-tube decal sent to Sam by Mike Hand
who restored it in the original colours after having decals made.
Also included is a scan of the original head-tube decal sent to Sam by Mike Hand
  |
  |
Paul Gittins (left - photo Geoff Hughes) on his Fothergill - this shot is probably April '63 and taken on the old D1 Chester by-pass course.
I had thought for years that it was taken in a 50 but on reflection probably not as I have no food in my pockets, my jersey is tucked into my shorts, and I don't have a bottle. It is therefore probably a 25.
The bike has Milremo centre-pulls with Universal levers, Stronglight 49D cranks with a Milremo steel 47/50 double rings, Unica saddle with Campag seatpin, Gransport gears with bar-end levers, GB bars with Pivo stem. 32/40 LF Record hubs with Fiamme rims, possibly Barum tubs (although I did have a 'Radium' one which wouldn't wear out!).
The frame was enamelled for me by C&G Finishes of Liverpool who did virtually all the Liverpool frames and always did a super job. It was bright yellow with bright darkish green seat bands edged in black and black lug lining.
C&G tended to 'sign-write' the makers names and mine was 'James Fothergill' in black.