Saxby's
Saxby's were a small bike shop in the Old Kent Road in South London. A friend of mine (Griff - see below) who runs a bike shop in Greenwich had Saxby's build him a road /track frame in the 1960s which he still owns and is in original condition. I subsequently discovered that they were agents for Witcomb's, the lightweight frame builders in Deptford, and therefore it is quite likely that they were responsible for building his frame and perhaps carrying out renovations on the frames you now own. Witcomb's are one of the few old established bike shops in London to remain open. Saxby's are long gone.
From Griff King Spooner
The information given on Saxby's as a cycle shop although somewhat scant prompted fresh memories of my dealings with Ron, as a postscript to my last post I forgot to mention that prior to moving over to Germany in 1967 I sold the Saxby's to a very useful "tester" Ken Brooker of the Luton Wheelers and then consigned it to happy memories and just a
few time
trial photo's (see left
doing a
1-hour 2-minute ride on the lumpy Q14 at
Dartford pushing an 81 fixed in 1966).
Now fast forward to around 35 years later where I
saw an advert in the Classified section in the "News
& Views" for a Saxby's track frame for sale
at
£50.00 posted by Chris Hewitt (who I now know as
the Hodge Marque Specialist) it was my size so, with renewed
memories of my old 1960's steed I went over
to his gaff
at St. Albans for a "butchers" thinking if it was in
ok condition I'll buy it and add it to my small collection of
London-built lightweights. You never can guess the rush I had when he took me out back to his workshop and there looking very forlorn was my old and very original Saxby's frame under a cover with its now faded yellow paint looking in all the world like a lost puppy at The Battersea Dogs Home. The hair on the back of my neck stood up when I realised I was about to be reunited with my old trusty Saxby's and if Chris had had the shrewdness to say it was now £500.00 I would have still gladly stumped up the cash, apparently it turned out that Chris was a good mate of Ken Brooker who sadly was now terminally ill in a hospice and Chris had been selling a few cycling bits and bobs of Ken's to help a tight financial situation. He didn't know anything about the frame's make or its provenance so when he next visited Ken a few days later and told him about the transaction and the gobsmacked buyer Ken confirmed everything that Chris had heard from me and asked him to pass on his good wishes that the frame had now gone back to it's original owner in 'Sarf London. Needless to say it's now restored with all the correct period components that I had first built it up with and it still rides a treat!
I have a little information on Saxby's in that
they were
a small one man shop that sold bikes/mopeds and car spares at
the New Cross end of The Old Kent Road just
a stone's
throw over the road from the larger Hills Cycle
shop. The
shop was patronised by a few of the local clubs and
Saxby frames were fairly well known then back in
SE
London. I used to go by the shop every day on my way to school
in Walworth back in the late 50's
early 60's. What initially caught my eye
were a pair of honey
coloured
wooden grass track rims he had in the window
for ages
so after leaving school and getting a job up by St. Pauls I
decided
to call in and try to purchase the rims as
I commuted home on my hack bike.
But no joy,
they were for display only. Not to be put
off and with my first month's wage burning a hole in my pocket
I
got chatting to the owner/manager Ron Cheesewright
and left
him a £10 deposit after getting measured
for a
road/track time trial iron. My
first ever
frame built just for me! 
We agreed that I would collect the finished
bike in bits and that I would do the build up at home
in
order to save paying Purchase Tax. Also, I could
pay interest
free the balance of £65-2s-6d over the next 12
months (like
many others he wasn't keen on keeping his accounts straight
with
the taxman). At that stage I thought Ron did the
lot -
design/build and paint - but it was a good few years
later that
I found that he like so many other small independents had his
frame orders jobbed out (Witcombs/Holdsworth and
even Gillots were his suppliers). In this
case my
frame was
built at Witcombs but Ron did do the
paintwork on his
frames as he took me out the back three weeks later to
a small workshop area where my newly
built frame was awaiting its first coat of yellow enamel.
Pulses
racing, I couldn't wait for the finished article and
agreed
with Ron that I would collect the frame and
Campag. bits
in one week's time from then. He carried on trading up until the mid to late 70's I believe but by the time the business closed down he had been dealing only in car spares as the bike industry was in the doldrums. I still have my original bike (see images above and below) on display at my shop.
Griff King Spooner's Saxby
road/path time-trial machine