of Hay Hall Works, Tyseley, Birmingham. Telephone: Acocks Green 1607. Telegraphic Address: "Butted". (1937)
1841 John Reynolds started as a nail manufacturer, in Birmingham.
1875 John Reynolds retired, passing leadership of the company to his sons Edwin Reynolds and Alfred John Reynolds
1881 Edwin died.
1890 Alfred John’s sons, John Henry Reynolds and Alfred Milward Reynolds, joined John Reynolds and Sons, Ltd
1897 Alfred M. Reynolds and J. T. Hewitt patented butted tubing.
1898 The predecessor of today’s Reynolds bicycle tubing company was formed, called The Patent Butted Tube Co, on 20th December.
1902 The Patent Butted Tube Co published its first bicycle tubing catalogue, boasting a 4½-pound tube set.
1916 During World War I, The Patent Butted Tube Co started manufacturing tubing for military bicycles and motorcycles.
1917 With wartime production, The Patent Butted Tube Co relocated to a large Tudor house known as Hay Hall in Tyseley.
1923 The Patent Butted Tube Co Ltd. changed its name to Reynolds Tube Co Ltd.
1924 Reynolds introduced high manganese tubing.
1927 Stand No.129 at the 1927 Motor Cycle and Cycle Show at Olympia
1928 Reynolds Tube Co was acquired by Tube Investments.
Name changed to TI Reynolds.
1935 Max Bigford and Austyn Reynolds introduced the Reynolds 531 tube-set, in manganese-steel alloy.
1935 Awarded the C.T.C. Plaque for the best Bicycle or accessory improvement of the year.[1]
1937 Steel tube and aluminium alloy tubes, bars and sections.
1937 Listed Exhibitor - British Industries Fair. Seamless Steel Precision Tubes, in plain and alloy steels, Seamless Tubes, Extruded bars and Sections, in high strength aluminium and magnesium alloys. Manipulated Tubes and Sections and Built-up Components. (Stand Nos. D.725 and D.624)
1939 See Aircraft Industry Suppliers
1939 During WWII, Reynolds ceased bicycle tube production and switched production to fighter plane tubing for the Spitfire.
In 1958, '61 and '69, Luxembourg, France and Belgium each won the Tour de France on a Reynolds built and/or tubed bike.
1976 Reynolds introduced heat-treated 753 tubing; which rapidly became the competition tubing of choice worldwide.
1995 Reynolds introduced the world’s first commercial air-hardening steel for bicycle frame tubes.
2000 A management buy-out on 24th January, took Reynolds back into private ownership, whilst keeping all the employees. Manufacturing of metallic products continued at Tyseley. The company is named Reynolds Cycle Technology (2000) Ltd.
2006 The company was renamed Reynolds Technology Ltd, to reflect the increasing revenues from diversification into “new” sectors for tubing outside the cycle industry.
2007 After 90 years at Redfern Road, the company moved to a modern factory building in Shaftmoor Lane, Birmingham.
Reynolds was a moped produced by Reynolds Tube Co between 1955 and 1956.
A attractive prototype was built with a two-speed German Victoria engine hung from a beam frame, and both front and rear suspension. Reynolds had no intention of producing it themselves and no-one else took it up.
See Also
Sources of Information
- [1] Reynolds Technology - Timeline
- Birmingham’s Industrial Heritage by Ray Shill. Published by Sutton Publishing 2002. ISBN 0-7509-2593-0
- 1937 The Aeroplane Directory of the Aviation and Allied Industries
- 1937 British Industries Fair p406
- The British Motorcycle Directory - Over 1,100 Marques from 1888 - by Roy Bacon and Ken Hallworth. Pub: The Crowood Press 2004 ISBN 1 86126 674 X