BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Ben Hayward Cycles hits its 100 year anniversary in the bike retail business this year.
The shop held a celebratory Rollapaluza last weekend to mark the occasion, with refreshments, one-off offers, maintenance advice and more offered to customers. Competition to win the Rollapaluza session was fierce – the winner bagging Team Discount status for a year.
Now owned by Rob Turner, the Cambridge shop is based on Trumpington Street – a busy thoroughfare into the picturesque student and tourist-packed city.
In 1912, its first year of business, the shop managed to sell Cambridge’s then Mayor a Golden Sunbeam for the princely sum of £18, 18 shillings and six pence (see below).
Ben Hayward’s workshop is located off-site in Landress Lane, while the retailer has also opened an out-of-town workshop within Notcutts Garden Centre.
It goes without saying that Ben Hayward Cycles’ 100 years in the business is an impressive achievement. Are there any older bike shops in the UK? Yes – including one in the same city. Pearson Cycles of Sutton, West London, has been trading since 1860, while Howes of Regent Street, Cambridge was established in 1840.
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