T. Parsons
Brooks’s Drive, Timperley, Altrincham
Update 4.25.2010
Theo Parsons of Altrincham was one of the many frame builders who set up shop in the Manchester area shortly after WWII.
He was born in 1917 in Broadway, Worcestershire, and in the 1930’s he raced bicycles as a member of the North Cotswold Cycling Club. During WWII he served in Northenden and Wythenshawe as an aerial artillery gunner in the Royal Artillery. After the war he worked in Billy Burrell’s cycle shop in Timperley for a few years until, in 1948, he set up his own cycle shop in the Manchester Road in Broadheath, Altrincham. At this shop he sold Thanet frames, cycling accessories and built frames which he marked “T. Parsons”.
In the late 50’s, he moved his shop to Brooks’s Drive, Timperley, Altrincham. Whilst there, he also
undertook to do frame enamelling for Pemberton’s, who were located in Sale and produced a cycle called the Pemberton Arrow. In all, Theo produced approximately 100 frames. In the mid-1960’s, Theo closed up shop and moved to a smallholding at Fells Tosside in North Yorkshire, where he lives to this day.
I am indebted to the late Ron Sant, Graham Trunks and Richard Dudgdale of Manchester CTC, and Jim Boydell of Seamons Cycling Club for this biographical information.
Shown are the author’s road and path frame, which was built in 1953, and two road bikes that were built in the mid-50’s. The black one is owned by David Collins,and the blue one belongs to Phil Staples.
The paint job and transfers on the road and path frame are the work of David Cheakas of Southwest Frameworks: www.southwestframeworks.com.
Theo’s nephew, Derek Parsons, created this marvelous website about the North Cotswold Cycling Club: www.cotswoldcycling.co.uk.
