After six decades Mercian Cycles workshop has moved.
Through the years there were a number of locations in Derby for the shop, the frame building workshop and sprayshop. But since about 1965 the frame building and painting was taking place at the Pontefract Street workshop.
How many Mercian frames rolled out from the small unobtrusive building tucked away on a Derby industrial estate? Certainly tens of thousands, but the exact number is lost in the mists of time. All hand built, put together and brazed the same way. The equipment may have changed but the frame building techniques have endured.
It wasn't only frames that were made there ,frame builders and painters learnt their craft on Pontefract St. Techniques passed down from generation to generation, skills taught, secrets learned.
If you had a new frame or a renovation from the mid 1980s onwards it was probably sprayed by Rob (back row, 3rd from left). He left school and started at Mercian, first starting training as a frame builder before quickly heading out the back to take up spraying. And he carried his spray gun all the way until he retired in 2021. One job, one workshop and who knows how many frames?
Frame builder number 8 was Tony (front row second from left), he started frame building not long after leaving school. Again nobody knows how many frames he brazed together and stamped his number on over those forty something years, until unfortunately Tony had to retire last year due to ill health.
Derek was number 5 (back row second from left), a cyclist first and then nearly forty years as a frame builder. Reynolds 753 certified, Vincitore lug carver, Velocita gluer. Pedalling in each day to the workshop, clocking in and turning out beautiful frames.
And there were many others who came and went over the years. Their passing recorded in a number stamped into the steel, captured busily in a behind the scenes photo for the catalogue or traced in paint.
Now Mercian has opened the doors to the new Little Eaton workshop. More space, room to carry on, room to expand. Same people, same techniques, same frames.
You can find us busy building frames at:
Unit 2 Duffield Road Industrial Estate, Little Eaton, Derby. DE21 5DR
