Bicycle Shops of Leeds (+Former)

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iansmithofotley
Posts: 558
Joined: Fri 28 Dec, 2007 4:10 pm

Re: Headingley Cycle Shops

Post by iansmithofotley »

George4 wrote:
Tue 14 Apr, 2020 12:18 pm
Loiner1960 wrote:
Mon 02 Jul, 2012 10:06 pm
Woodruffs in Headingley on North Lane. Old Mrs Woodruff ran that shop. My late father spent his hard earned there. Still a shop on Kirkstall Road.
In the 1950s through into the early 1960s, the cycle shop on North Lane, Headingley, next door to Bretts Fisheries, was Marsdens. I often had my old bike repaired there by old Mr Marsden, who walked with a limp, but was an expert mechanic. In 1960 my family bought me a super new cycle there - a blue Sun Snipe with 10 gears. Happy Days!
Woodrups Cycles are still trading in Kirkstall. Not aware of any connection with Marsdens?
Jean Woodrup took over the Marsdens Cycle Shop at 10a North Lane around 1967. I am aware that she still had the shop in 1984, but I don't know what happened to it after that. Jean died in 1993 aged 73 years, and Maurice Woodrup died in 2000 aged 81 years.

At one stage, around 1967, the Woodrups' had the original shop at 111 Burley Lodge Road, the 'new' shop at 345 - 347 Kirkstall Road (which became the main shop as it is today) and the shop at 10a North Lane, at the same time. When I first knew Maurice and Jean in the 1950's, they lived behind the Burley Lodge Road shop and some of the cyclists would just go to the shop for a chat and we would be served tea and biscuits in the lounge adjoining the shop by Jean.

Maurice was originally from Kettlewell, where he is buried, and Jean originally came from Durham. The couple got married in 1946 at Keighley, where they both lived at the time. I don't know when they moved to Leeds.

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