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C J Rouse of Kettering, Northants

Here’s another old photo of a motorcycle for you to identify. It is parked outside Mr C J Rouse’s shop in Kettering, Northamptonshire.

Jeff Waller, email, Spain.

You’ve half beaten me this time, Jeff!

A search of cycle shops in Kettering imply various Rouse family members had at least two shops in Wellington Street, Kettering, whether one of these had been the premises Mr C J Rouse ran, I don’t know. Today, there is a scooter shop in the same street.

Almost every town and many villages in the UK had a cycle maker who combined this work with selling associated parts, cycles by other makers, prams, offered repairs and often many other services to earn a living. During the 1890s, cycling went through a boom period with some making fortunes in less than a year – this encouraged many cycle enthusiasts, racers and would-be businessmen and women to set up shops and often make cycles.

While it may seem a big step to start making cycles, it wasn’t that difficult for men and women who had some mechanical experience and could either braze or silver solder. From the late Victorian period onwards, specialist firms such as Sun Cycle and Fittings, BSA, Sparkbrook and others offered lugs, tube, pegs and everything else for cycle chassis assembly. These and other firms offered pedals, handlebars etc and yet others offered specialised items, exampled by Brooks saddles, Villiers freewheels, Sturmey Archer hub gears and so on.

When the subject of cycle and motorcycle frame making has arisen previously, a