Pemberton Arrow

As far back at the nineteenth century Martin Pemberton’s great grandfather was designing and building innovative bicycles which came to be known as the Pemberton Arrow.

The Pemberton family has the distinction of having produced bicycles longer than any other make in the Manchester region. They started in 1896 at 289-291 Ashton Old Road, where Edward Pemberton opened their first shop “Pembertons” and continued until grandson Harold closed the shop in Washway Road, Sale in 1984.

Edward Pemberton (see portrait Right) was born in 1863 and was employed as a loom maker in Coventry and Leicester before moving to Manchester. He worked as a frame builder for the Belsize works in Clayton (very close to Ashton Old Road) before he opened his own shop in 1896, where he continued until 1920. We know little of the early bikes, called “The Pemberton”, but they would probably be of the roadster, safety type with pneumatic tyres. It is likely that sporting versions were made for the local clubmen to race with at the well-known Fallowfield cycle track in Manchester.

In 1930, Edward Pemberton died and Fred continued the business, building frames with the help of his stepbrother, Frank.

The business was successful and in 1936 they decided to open another shop at 399 Washway Road, Sale. Fred (image of Fred building frame) moved to this shop and was helped in frame-building, before the war, by Charlie Cook and Andy Bent.  In this large double-fronted shop they were major cycle dealers in the Sale area for they also sold Raleigh, Sunbeam, BSA, Triumph and Elswick as well as their hand-built machines made to order for local club cyclists. Frank continued to run the Longsight shop and carried it on through the war years until it was closed in the 1940’s.

Being a reservist, Fred was called into the RAF at the start of the Second World War in 1939 and was stationed at Ringway (near to Manchester) for some of the time. The Sale shop continued and by 1942 Fred’s elder son Harold, then 15, helped out after school and on Saturdays before becoming a full-time worker in 1944. Fred returned in 1946 but shortly after this Harold went, as a conscript, to do his National Service for two years. George Lewis came into the shop to help Fred build frames and Harold joined him in 1948 when he returned from National Service. After taking a brazing and welding course at Openshaw Technical College Harold started to do some frame-building – although Fred did the majority of it and took exception to Harold’s theoretical knowledge. Enamelling was done by David Jenkins in Camp Street, Deansgate, and after he died, by Theo Parsons whose shop was only half a mile away in West Timperley.

In 1982 Harold had a slight stroke, the cycle trade had diminished, and so he decided to close the business, sell the premises and retire to Abergele close by to his father. Thus, eighty-eight years after starting Pembertons, manufacture of the Pemberton Arrow came to an end. It had been a remarkable achievement to maintain building such high quality machines for such a long period and to continue in the cycle trade through some very difficult times.

It is not easy to know how many machines were made, very few being for stock, as most buyers wanted to have a frame built to their own specification. In the boom years before and just after World War II, fifty a year was probably the maximum, so we can guess that perhaps, in total, three thousand were made. The earliest recorded Pemberton frame that we now know about is frame number 1200 thought to have been built in early 1930, although later frames built by the Pembertons have a six figure frame number indicating the build date. So number 520212, the machine which Harold Pemberton owned, was built in 1952 on February 12th. This is marked under the bottom bracket and behind the fork crown. This numbering system, whilst allowing us to date the machines very accurately, gives us no clue to the quantity being built. The Neil Shankland built frames had a single letter and two-digit number.

Sadly, following a series of further strokes, Harold Pemberton died in October 2003, age 76, leaving his widow Joan. His Pemberton Arrow passed on to his nephew Martin Pemberton (son of Harold’s only brother John) who is also custodian of Fred’s original cycle. This machine however, has the unique serial number 58859, which in fact was Fred’s RAF service number. Martin is intending to restore Fred’s Arrow for his son Max who, born in 1994, is now the youngest Pemberton and direct descendant of (great great grandfather) Edward Pemberton.