My "new" Speedias

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Match Aerial
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Re: My "new" Speedias

Post by Match Aerial »

Regarding the start up on the speedia Nobby I agree . But you could compare a speeda to a Chris Lyle and find the same out come, does that make it a better reel?. I would say a low start up is important but so is build quality. The point I was making is speedias because of the low quality should not demand such high prices as reels which are built a higher standard. Speeds reels are not without faults either as you know.

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Nobby
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Re: My "new" Speedias

Post by Nobby »

Now that Speedias are fetching a higher price I suppose it's natural to compare them to other reels that always held a high price, but that's more about the current market than the reels.


It's just a personal thing, but I never could get on with a Match Aerial...present interlocutor very much excepted of course :Chuckle: ....and they cost more than twice as much as a Speedia in those days. Now the margin is much narrower doesn't make the reels feel any different though.

As to a Chris Lythe reel, and others, I confess I've never held one, but I think in that area of the market you are buying into something else entirely...hand-built quality, designer-made rarity....and a certain exclusivity that keeps this poor pensioner from their door.

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Match Aerial
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Re: My "new" Speedias

Post by Match Aerial »

The reason why they have gone up in price is pikefisher keeps listing them at £200 and other seller are following the same with high start prices. Buyers think there getting a bargain if they get one for considerably less than pikefishers listings.
The same thing happened with Adcock Stantons they started comparing them with the price of the new models. Since the new guy making Stantons has stop listing on ebay the prices have come down on the older models back to the price they should be.

MA

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Nobby
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Re: My "new" Speedias

Post by Nobby »

I absolutely agree, but prices were on the up before that antique dealers started refurbishing them. I don't think he's ever sold one at £200, but did let one go to a free auction recently...it fetched £70.

He strikes me as in the same vein as a few fellers near the Welsh border who list over-priced tackle endlessly, presumably in the hope that someone will actually believe these prices the norm one day. How they survive defeats me.


If eBay ever start charging for an auction listing even if no sale occurs I think these people will be history......

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Anchorman
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Re: My "new" Speedias

Post by Anchorman »

Thanks everyone for such in-depth information, particularly re the mystery over the manufacturing of Speedias and the factory (shed?) involved. I wonder just how many were eventually turned out, and also how many people were involved in the process. One would have expected someone to have come forward with first or secondhand knowledge by now, can only assume it will probably not happen now.
Glad I've got my hands on a few, and will be using them as and when the chance arises.
Kindest regards, Tim.

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Nobby
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Re: My "new" Speedias

Post by Nobby »

Just to continue my research into the mystery of the Speedia, I have now learned that the area took a bit of a battering during 1944 during what the residents came to call The Mini Blitz.
On 20th. February the Victorian three story Westville Elementary School, right next to what I think may have been the Speedia factory, took a direct hit and was destroyed completely. Windows as far away as Cathnor Road were shattered and the streets littered with debris. In the image below you can see the end of the terrace of houses in Goodwin Road( to the left of the ruined school)...that is the turning south into Melina Road, .... Cathnor Road is one street further left. That was a BIG bomb!

The school was rebuilt as Greenside School in 1950, designed by Erno Goldfinger, whose name was 'nicked' by Ian Flemming almost in its entirety ..


"No, Mr Bond, I expect you to die!"

It took just 23 days to build the new school and it is now a listed building.

Mr. Goldfinger also designed the nearby Trellick Tower in Notting Hill...designed to flex four feet in a storm. I've been up there in one...I thought I was going to lose my breakfast. Absurdly, once Council flats that no one wanted they are now worth millions.......but they still move........

Image Westville School 1944


Incidentally, Westville Road was Bannerman Street until 1912, it appears.

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RightCharlie
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Re: My "new" Speedias

Post by RightCharlie »

I've always understood WR stood for Westley Richards, a name from before the war?

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Nobby
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Re: My "new" Speedias

Post by Nobby »

I'm guilty of making just the same assumption a few years back..it all seemed to fit. But Westley Richards were a Birmingham gun maker.

https://www.westleyrichards.com/

I still have no idea who made the Speedia reels, apart from that they called themselves WR Products.

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Santiago
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Re: My "new" Speedias

Post by Santiago »

My new widedrum arrived this morning with the post. Very nice, but bone dry where oil is concerned. Very happy though, because it still spins just as well as my newly oiled narrow drum Speedias. So looking forward to adding a squirt of sewing machine oil and timing how long I can get it to spin!
"....he felt the gentle touch on the line and he was happy"

Hemingway

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