Raleigh (bicycle)
Raleigh's heron head badge
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| Private company limited by shares | |
| Industry | Bicycles |
| Fate | management buyout |
| Predecessor | Woodhead and Angois (1885, later Woodhead, Angois and Ellis) |
| Founded | December 1888, registered as a limited liability company in January 1889 |
| Founders | Frank Bowden, Richard Woodhead and Paul Angois |
| Headquarters | Nottingham, United Kingdom |
| Website | Raleigh.co.uk |
The Raleigh Bicycle Company is a bicycle manufacturer based in Nottingham, England. Founded by Woodhead and Angois in 1885, who used Raleigh as their brand name, it is one of the oldest bicycle companies in the world. After being acquired by Frank Bowden, it became The Raleigh Cycle Company in December 1888, which was registered as a limited liability company in January 1889. By 1913, it was the biggest bicycle manufacturing company in the world. From 1921 to 1935, Raleigh also produced motorcycles and three-wheel cars, leading to the formation of the Reliant Company. The Raleigh division of bicycles is currently owned by the Dutch corporation Accell.
In 2006, the Raleigh Chopper was named in the list of British design icons in the Great British Design Quest organised by the BBC and the Design Museum. The iconic bike appeared on a list which included Concorde, Mini, Jaguar E-Type, Aston Martin DB5, Supermarine Spitfire, World Wide Web, London tube map, Routemaster bus and the K2 telephone box.
The history of Raleigh bicycles started in 1885, when Richard Morriss Woodhead from Sherwood Forest, and Paul Eugene Louis Angois, a French citizen, set up a small bicycle workshop in Raleigh Street, Nottingham, England. In the spring of that year, they started advertising in the local press. The Nottinghamshire Guardian of 15 May 1885 printed what was possibly the first Woodhead and Angois classified advertisement.
Nearly two years later, the 11 April 1887 issue of The Nottingham Evening Post contained a display advertisement for the Raleigh ‘Safety’ model under the new banner ‘Woodhead, Angois, and Ellis. Russell Street Cycle Works.’ William Ellis had recently joined the partnership and provided much-needed financial investment. Like Woodhead and Angois, Ellis’s background was in the lace industry. He was a lace gasser, a service provider involved in the bleaching and treating of lace, with premises in nearby Clare Street and Glasshouse Street. Thanks to Ellis, the bicycle works had now expanded round the corner from Raleigh Street into former lace works on the adjoining road, Russell Street. By 1888, the company was making about three cycles a week and employed around half a dozen men. It was one of 15 bicycle manufacturers based in Nottingham at that time.
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