ON YOUR BIKE

Firstly I would like to say a big thank you to Phil Davis of Long Buckby Historical Society for sharing his knowledge of our house and its prior owners and for the wonderful photographs he has provided me with, also to Denise my friend in the US who e-mailed Phil to see what he might know as a surprise for me.

Our little house has quite a history as the bike shop within our village and it was in the same family for nearly 70 something years. The thought is that the property was originally a shoe workshop, Northampton is known as a boot and shoe town and lots of little cottage industries were set up from homes in the villages. This is a  pictures from the early part of the 20th century which show a row of cottages and the pub, sadly pulled down, and it is now the area where we park our car.

William (Billy) Blincow took over the premises and lived there with his wife and two children Gladys and Len and started up the bicycle repair shop. This was at a time when cycling was at its heyday and people would take their bikes and cycle for miles out into the countryside. The shop sold all kinds of accessories and bits and pieces for bikes and if they should have the bad luck to get a puncture William would repair it for them. When William died the business passed to his son and he and his wife continued with the business until his death in the early 1970’s. I have been told by men who were boys in the village when the shop was still in operation that Len would repair a puncture for 50p.......

This postcard picture dates from the 1950's and the sign on the

side of the house is now in pride of place in the Community Centre.  The little boy in the picture looks a lot like my husband did when he was a child, he had a three wheel trike which he used to ride and by all accounts use as an acrobatic prop, hence the broken nose when he hit a lampost going around the corner on two wheels.....

Finally who could resist this little one, this shows one of Williams children posing by a bicycle and was an advert used for the shop.  I am definitely going to frame that and put it on my wall.

BILLY BLINCOW AND THE BIKE SHOP

One of my hobbies when I am not busy searching for vintage finds or creating is researching my family tree and genealogy. I have always loved history and I am a nosy devil by nature and love to know what happened back in the annals of time, one of the reasons why I love old houses. I put on my Sherlock Holmes deerstalker to play detective and I just had to start looking into the history of my new home especially as it appears that the bicycle business that was part of my house played so big a part in the village’s life.

First stop the internet, there is always something to find on there and I decided that I would see if there were any photographs of the business or shop, and low and behold I found this wonderful snap of William Blincow the owner for the shop outside what is now my lounge. What a find.

As you can see the bow window is still there I  might even ask Hubby to look under the tongue and groove cladding to see if the moulded detail originally on the bay is still there, I should be so lucky, as would be wonderful to have that displayed again.

In my dining room there is a little window peep hole which opens up and this was used by the owners to look through to see if anybody had come into the shop and needed serving . I love it as it one of the houses features and part of its quirky past.

Next stop is our little village museum and local history society as I expect they have more information to give me.  Then it is back to the internet to start looking at the census's to see who else may have lived in the house and maybe find out exactly how old it is.  I should have been a detective.....