In an unassuming corner of England, on a suitably grimy back street, you’ll find a man who has been fixing bikes for 65 years. Gordon Webber, 81, known simply as Gordy, is something of a local legend in his hometown of Barnstaple, North Devon. From Monday to Saturday, 7am to 7pm, you’ll find him faithfully crouched on the pavement, surrounded by inner tubes and sprockets, quietly carrying on his life’s work. He’s so well-known he doesn’t even have a website or a phone number.
His vocation was sparked by one of Devon’s worst ever natural disasters. It was 1952 when a devastating flood swept through the town of Lynmouth, near where Gordy grew up.
‘We’d gone to bed… I remember the front door bursting open,’ he recalls. As water filled the ground floor, Gordy and his family survived by taking refuge upstairs. Others weren’t so lucky; 34 people lost their lives and dozens of homes were destroyed. But among the debris washed up in the aftermath of the disaster were scores of crumpled bikes.