Help identifying Hary Hall frame Ted Pritchard

[yourebarred]

Well, this is embarassing I very much hope that I haven't wasted anyone's time, and I have learned a lesson - never post up for help without having seen the frame first.
The lady I bought it from assured me it had the HH code on the frame. It turns out this isn't true at all. The frame is marked with the number 8242. Unless anyone has any other ideas, I'm going to assume it was built by Ted Pritchard in Chobham.
It also has the name of the owner painted on, and their bicycle club - Camberley Wheelers. The club merged with the local Farnborough club in the late '60s. I guess this pretty much all adds up to this being a nice enough lightweight frame handbuilt in Surrey in the 1960's?
Pics attached, and sorry again for posting before possessing the frame. Sorry folks.
If anyone is still talking to me, I would appreciate suggestions for what to build it up with. I do want to ride it, so maybe all period correct isn't practical for a bit of (mild) touring. I have a Shimano Arabesque groupset ready and waiting and a nice Wrights saddle...

 

[yourebarred]

few more..

 

[Dogrob]

The mystery continues... Just out of interest who was the original owner? I remember it was quite common in those days for riders to have their name on their frames, as a kid I always aspired to having my name painted on the top tube but it went out of fashion before I could afford to have it done.

Rob

 

[yourebarred]

this person..
I emailed the FCCC and the club person is asking around. Everyone is so helpful!

 

[Old Ned]

Camberely Whs. had some good riders BITD. Frank Colden who smashed the 100 mile record in '62 with 3-52-43 and became the Best All-Rounder that year was a long time member. Kevin Fairhead (later Hounslow & Dist Whs), Geoff Cross and others made up a great team.

No problem with you 'misleading' us - it wasn't your fault!

I wonder how she made the Harry Hall connection in the first place?

 

[cycleman]

Re: Ted Pritchard

I came across this post on the forum and whilst I cant help with identifying the bike, The history of it took me back many years and I thought I would share a small piece of my cycling nostalgia here.

I used to work in Chobham back in the 1960s and cycled there from just outside of Woking 6 days a week. I remember Ted Prichard's shop very well; It was to me an Aladdin's cave. A small shop located on the right hand side of Chertsey Road a few hundred yards down from the junction of the High street/Windsor road. The shop from memory was very small, I think it was a house originally and had been turned into a shop. It had a small window with a display of cycling goodies laid out on the inside ledge of the widow and I remember "Mafac Centre pulls", "Campagnolo gears" to name but a few; it was all proper stuff that I remember looking through that window.

I'm still cycling and fixing bikes today and its probably Ted Pritchard that was one of the people that have inspired me.

Thank you

 

[Cefnbikie]

As I have only recently joined the forum I hadn't seen this post until today. Seeing today’s post by cycleman has brought back some memories.

I joined the Farnborough CC in 1964, and started racing with them the same year. There were close links with the Camberley Wheelers, including combined Sunday club runs, led by Farnborough CC. The two clubs amalgamated around 1969. I lived in Farnborough, and there was a bike shop run by a grumpy bloke just around the corner that sold some ‘lightweight’ bike bits, including a few tubulars. I much preferred to ride over to Chobham to Ted Pritchard’s shop. Ted was very cheerful and friendly, and not condescending to those of us in our mid-teens (like the bike shop in Farnborough). He had an excellent stock of parts and I recall that he had built frames in the past, but had stopped by the mid-1960s. Ted kindly ordered me a set of 531 tubes, Prugnat lugs, etc for when I set out to build a track frame for a metalwork project at school, and he gave me advice, too. I used the frame when riding fixed-wheel in time trials, and it served me well. I recall that, sadly, Ted died of a heart attack whilst out with a Charlottesville CC evening training ride in the late 1960s.

Another bike shop I visited fairly regularly was Reeds in Wimbledon, who managed to sell wheels and some other components a fair bit cheaper than elsewhere (even though this was the time of Retail Price Maintenance). There was a story going around in the mid-60s of Reeds keeping wheel-building costs down by employing a number of women to lace up the wheels before they were trued. A clubmate claimed to have seen them in a room behind the Reeds shop at the start of a tea break, when they put down the hubs, rims and spokes, and got out their knitting! I was very sceptical, but many were amused by it at the time.

 

[yourebarred]

Re:

This is great stuff, thanks guys.
So a couple of things happened in between my last post and now.
One, I moved to a place called Sunninghill, which is remarkably close to Chobham! As I was previously in Glasgow, it's slightly odd to be living close to Ted's stomping ground. Are any of you still around here?
Second, I built up the frame and am pretty happy with the result. I used a Shimano 600 Arabesque group set, found a nice Brooks and a Gerry Burgess stem and bars.
Wheels proved hard to find so in the end I bought new Weinmann 27" rims, Sapim spokes and had Arup Sen build them up for me in South London.
I tried stitching leather to the bars, but it kept slipping g so wound some tape over the top.
I also traced the T and P from the frame, designed a wee logo and had a friend engrave a brass decal for the head tube.
I hope you like the bicycle now.

 

[Cefnbikie]

Re: Re:

Are any of you still around here?

I now live in South Wales, and only rarely go to the South East. I have just looked at Ted’s old shop on Streetview, and it looks much the same on the outside, although the whole area looks smarter than 30-odd years ago when I last passed through Chobham. Seeing the surrounding roads on Streetview reminded me of my rides over to Ted’s shop from Farnborough, on either my Hobbs fixed-wheel or RO Harrison geared bike, after school in the mid-60s; in winter with the pin-prick illumination of Ever Ready lighting on unlit roads. Sadly, I don’t have the Hobbs frame anymore, but I do still have the ROH, and it will be hopefully rebuilt in the not too distant future.

Your Ted Pritchard build sounds very interesting – would it be possible to see some pictures?

 

[yourebarred]

Re:

Here you go, let me know what you think