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Hercules Cycles

In the 50's, at the age of 14, my first new cycle was a Hercules 'Harlequin' bought on the 'never never' for £14 at Rogers Cycle Shop on Stoney Lane, Sparkbrook. This was my magic carpet, one that would take me anywhere I asked it too. One evening I wrecked it and the next day carried it, wheels wouldn't turn and were bent in figure of 8's, back to Mr Roger's shop asking him if he could salvage anything. He said "you have no worries, the HP terms include insurance". To this day I still don't know if he was telling me porkies but a week later he gave me a new bike. On this bike I often made 100 mile trips, a few years later my favourite was Birmingham to Heathrow plane spotting. It took me about 5 hours to get there and the first time I spent so much time watching aircraft that I forgot the time and slept the night in a ditch at the back of B.O.A.C. hangers were the whole new fleet of Boeing 707's was on engine test, it was music in my ears!

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Hello everyone.. I have on my records family members who were ' Cycle Workers'.. they lived near Floodgate St down Aston way in 1910/20's , do you think their work was at Hercules????
Cheers Simon
 
Simon they may have but at that time there were a lot of small Bicycle Co,s. Floodgate St although at that time was in Aston it was right on the boarder and is now in Digbeth there would be quite a way to travel to the center of Aston. Dek
 
hi folks..i was just going though my misc pic file and came across a one of the hercules head offic in aston...trouble is its in tiff format and i cant post it at the min but if you bare with me a while when our tom comes in i will get him to change it so that i can post it....i havnt seen it on the forum before so hopefully its a new one...

lyn
 
hi bazz..ive no idea where i got this pic from but when i saw it i remembered this thread...not the best quality pic but straining me eyes to see the cars outside they look to be around the 40s..could be wrong though....should be on within the hour....

lyn
 
I worked at Hercules in the 40s, 1944 to be exact packing cycles for export, only stayed for 12 months, no prospects and very boring. My first job on leaving school Eric
 
here you go eric. and bazz..no date im afraid but maybe someone will have an idea....

lyn
 
Thats a great photo Lyn. Ive no idea when it might have been taken either. But I remember it better as TUBES LTD. Such a pity its all away now.
 
i thought the building looked familar bazz...so after hercules it was tubes..thats where my aunt used to work and i used to meet her outside on fridays to go to her caravan for the weekend..well thats something else ive learnt...

lyn
 
Thanks Lyn, the archway on the left was the workers entrance, we trundled down there every morning, export and Despatch was right the other end, that pic brings back memories of 66 years ago!!!! Eric
 
glad its bought back some memories for you eric..thats what pics are all about...

lyn
 
My mom told me she used to work at hercules painting the stripes on, they were all given milk to drink because of the paint getting on their lungs
 
Patty not the paint that was the problem it was the lead in the paint. i worked as a contractor at J lucas in the Battery Shop Formans Rd no one under 21 was allowed to work in there. We were given 2 pints of milk a day coundn,t get out of there fast enough. Dek
 
Re: Hercules

Hi Sylvia at last i've found you again - it's been ages since i was on this site, and I hardly recognised any of the links - however, i wanted to ask you about a friend from school - Jean Wolverson - I think it was you who told me sadly that she had died - I think you told me that her husband took her to all places worldwide where he thought that there was a chance that she could be get help for recovery - but this was not to be. Someone told me that she had divorced her first husband - so was this her second husband who worked so hard to try to help her.

Keep Smiling - and any help with this will be very much appreciated. Dotxx
 
John Houghton said:
My first job on leaving school was at Hercules Cycles in Rocky Lane I was employed as a case maker all cycles that where exported were packed in the cases we made. The forman was Edgar I only knew his first name nice bloke it was a huge place to work at there were numerous different departments my favourite was the wheel assembly shop that's where all the girls worked this was the first of many jobs I had next port of call Ansells in the bottling conveyour room directing the grates of beer to different dispatch areas.
more to follow later
Click to expand...

The foreman may have been my uncle, Edgar Phillips . My Mom also worked there ,in the stores, Beatrice Phillips .
 
This is for Dorothy, I did tell you that Jean Wolverson had died, must be about 15 years ago now, so she was quite young. I don't know whether she was divorced from her first husband, I have an old school friend who might know, as she knew Jean's widower, she used to go out with him as a teenager. I hope you are well, and look forward to you posting again on this site, I always enjoyed your stories.
 
My sons father-in-law left his native Liverpool in the 1930s,and cycled the lengh of the A5 to find work.
On one of these travels he came to Birmingham,where he found a job at Hercules.
He told me of his memories of that time,he said he worked his first day there not knowing where he would sleep that night,he had been used to sleeping in barns and hedgerows.However,before his working day was over a kindly woman offered him lodgings,where he stayed until he had to move on again.
Now, his thoughts were,how could these people,who had so little, share what they did have in his time of need.
The outcome was,he never forgot it,he thought Brummies were the salt of the earth,and he was so happy that his daughter was marrying and lad born in Brum.
Don't it make you proud ?.
Oh,the odd thing is at that time I was living just a short walk away in Lichfield Rd.
 
i have this photo but most posts say that this company was in rocky lane...the caption reads hercules cycles and motor co...workers leaving night shift 1947 from the salford st exit..on the left is crompton road on the right is eliot st with the school just visible...can anyone confirm the location

lyn

hercules cycle and motor co salford st exit 1947.jpg
 
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