Page 35 - PBCOctober2019

Pickwick Bicycle Club Magazine Volume 16 No.2 October 2019 !35

Soon after this happened I was called up into the office of the new works manager and told
that the policy of the firm was changing and the bonuses were to be discontinued and all the
staff would be given an increase to compensate for the loss; mine was to be an extra £2 per
week. This meant I should be worse off, which I pointed out but to no avail, and was asked to
send up Keith my assistant foreman.
When Keith came down from his interview his long face told its own story. As we discussed
it I said to Keith “I’ve a good mind to do a flyer” (start my own business) his immediate
reaction was to say “I would like to come in with you” and we shook hands and the die was
cast. After this “adjustment” my annual income dropped from £1043 to £749, and I started
teaching at night school to make ends meet, eventually teaching four nights a week. We
planned that Keith would go first because although he was married he had no family while I
was married with four children and a mortgage, so we had to get something up and going
before I could leave and join him. With our joint savings of £80 we formed Tonard Brazing
Co., Ltd. a combination of both our surnames. Within a year Keith had left Holdsworthy and
was working in a shed at the bottom of my garden where I would join him in the evenings and
week ends. A year later in 1967, I too had left and by now we were renting a small work shop
in Croydon.
Tonard brazing prospered and after a few years Keith left to work full time with Odilla in
Elsmar Distributors. By then the writing was on the wall for the Holdsworthy firm and after
making a move to new premises in Oakfield Road Penge they eventually sold up and were no
more. In 1987 the Holdsworthy business was purchased by Falcon Cycles for £954,000; their
assets valued at 1.8 million. It was a case of history repeating itself just as it was with the
Claud Butler & Holdsworth marques that were the prize Condor pursued and secured.

Willie Tonkin (Whiffers Retired)

And so this incredible historical story of the famous Holdsworth marque comes to an end. I know
that Willie was very keen for it to be seen & read, and hopefully not forgo^en, so many thanks
to him for making a huge effort to record the facts in such detail. Ed.

On the back cover, there is an advert for Raleigh bicycles, featuring the great Charlie
Holland. But how many people remember that he was the first English rider to participate in
the Tour de France? Having ridden in the 1932 & 1936 Olympic Games for the British Empire
team, he won the BBAR in 1936. He turned pro’ in 1937, took to 6-Day racing but broke his
collar bone in a crash at Liege. He entered & rode as part of another British Empire team in
the 1937 Tour de France, but having run out of tyres after multiple punctures sadly did not
finish. Do any of our current members remember him? …..Ed