Hi I was told that someone in my family in Sheffield made penny farthings? Not sure how true this was? My family at the time were Smith's and Veneer's, Siddall and Wadsworth Stead's? Would love to find out how true this was!

If you look on here you may be able to find your ancestors:
http://www.sheffieldindexers.com/DirectoriesIndex.html

Regards,
Duffems

Hi I managed to locate William Siddell as a shoemaker which was interesting no sign of any Smith/veneer families or penny farthing factories? I'll have to keep looking!

They may not have been listed as "penny farthing manfacturers", they could have been something like metal producers?

Hi Duffems yes I wondered that but not sure where to start looking!

Before Kelham Island Museum was a Generating station for the tram system I believe it was a foundry. they used to make iron Hobby Horses and then Penny Farthings.

The Smith family could have been involved, as they were bike designers from way back.

Happy Days!

Hi Pop T ooh that sounds really interesting the only problem is I'm not sure who was involved if it was my Smith family or Veneer'swho married into Smith's, as my relation Charles Veneer was listed as being an engineer? Maybe it was him? Thanks though

I was told that one of the Smiths was still designing cycles in the 1970's and kept a great collection of old bikes next to his design office near Kelham Island museum.

Repeating an earlier post comment I did work with Bill Smith who worked as an odd job lad at the Langsett shop yonks ago.

When business was slow in the shop he used to ride around Sheffield on a penny farthing bike with the Sheffield Langsett advertising signs attached to drum up trade.
He also raced for the shop riding one of their cane rimmed racing bikes.

Happy Days!

No answer to the poser but in Saturday's Star 11/10/08, "Weekender Past times" - so can't post photograph - there is a penny farthing pictured with the following footing: "Mrs Brenda Coukham of Ridgeway Road, assisted by Mr.C.Keeton and young cycling enthusiasts practising on a Penny Farthing (circ 1890) which was one of nine veteran cycles that took part in the Lord Mayor's Parade, May 20, 1968."

This is moving off on a tangent, too------but, by some miracle, might help ! In the 50's and '60's [ and maybe much later ; I don't know ], there used to be a shop on Abbeydale Road, roughly at its junction with Wolsely Road. On the wall of the shop was a Penny Farthing bicycle.

Now the ' Sherlock Holmes ' bit ! If anyone knows who owned the shop or bike and the relevant people are still around, maybe it's possible to contact them somehow and check where they got the bike from ? [ I said it was a tangent ! ]. Anyway, good luck with the search. At the very least, one excellent thing that S.F. does, is to throw up little gems from the Highways and By-Ways of our past------in this case, literally .

This is moving off on a tangent, too------but, by some miracle, might help ! In the 50's and '60's [ and maybe much later ; I don't know ], there used to be a shop on Abbeydale Road, roughly at its junction with Wolsely Road. On the wall of the shop was a Penny Farthing bicycle.

Now the ' Sherlock Holmes ' bit ! If anyone knows who owned the shop or bike and the relevant people are still around, maybe it's possible to contact them somehow and check where they got the bike from ? [ I said it was a tangent ! ]. Anyway, good luck with the search. At the very least, one excellent thing that S.F. does, is to throw up little gems from the Highways and By-Ways of our past------in this case, literally .

I think this has already been mentioned on a nearby thread -re Butterworths ?
Butterworths was on Abbeydale Road but further on, opposite Abbeydale Secondary School near Glen Road - and did have a penny farthing above the shop window.

The penny-farthing was the bicycle of the 1890s. I would suggest a visit to the Local Studies library where they have all the local newspapers of the period on microfiche. There are bound to be advertisements by local suppliers/manufacturers in the papers. Have a look in the local directories too, - Kellys and Whites etc., these usually have plenty of local adverts.