See also: Raleigh documents

Country: UK

The Raleigh Cycle Company was formed in 1888, in Nottingham. The legend is that Frank Bowden formed the company by buying a bicycle workshop in Raleigh Street, Nottingham. Frank Bowden had been given 6 months to live by his doctor, and attributed his miraculous return to good health to the benefits of riding a bicycle that he had purchased from this workshop.

By 1896, Raleigh was a public company and operated a brand-spanking-new factory that it claimed was the largest bicycle factory in the world. The next key act was the 1902 purchase of Sturmey-Archer, the manufacturer of hub-gears. Over the next 70 years Raleigh would go on to become a global company, and would hoover up a large number of British bicycle brands, and at one point claimed that their Nottingham factory was the largest factory of any kind in the world. In various different periods after the Second world war Raleigh is reckoned to have accounted for 80% of the bicycles sold in Britain. More...