My "new" Speedias

[Paul D]

Nice reels Tim

[Anchorman]

Well the river season's over with a bang - a massive spike on the EA river levels - in East Anglia anyway.....
I managed a final trip out to try out the Speedias before the last dump of water hit us.
Firstly failed to catch a roach or dace on a very unco-operative upper Bure, but did put the nicest of my Narrows through its paces as a trotting tool. Liked it a lot.
Moved to the upper Wensum pm, chubbing - trotting with flake, the cream of chub fishing in my book - using a nice Wide Drum I picked up in a trade. Landed this fine young chub and another before fading light and frost stopped play. Well pleased with the Wide as well.

Soon the tench rods and fly gear will be coming out......
Kindest regards, Tim.

[RBTraditional]

Ooh I do love a speedia....so much that I too own three narrow drum and one wide drum. I have a soft spot for rapidex and trudex too....but that's another story....

[Chavender]

Anchorman ,sometimes it takes a fresh pair of eyes to point out something obvious I can see your suggestion as being right ,as the factory did have a entrance (two doors) on Westville Road & the front/office was accessed via a drive/courtyard at the other end (right behind No 52 boscombe Rd .) So you could be right and the simple answer is right and makes more sense than a lot of things that's been banded about over the years ,sometime we cant see the wood for the trees .I have looked at pictures of the factory (some now lost I fear) for many years on & off ,on google earth /streetview etc and seen the street name and never made the connection .we assume business names are taken from the owners names etc like say William Robertson or whatever but sometimes they're named after locations .

So thanks for that insight and for making me feel stupid (hey its good too have the occasional reality check) for not picking up on the possibility .

and welcome to the light side and thanks for joining in

[Chavender]

as others have said a little lateral play is acceptable ,and can be tolerated if it doesn't effect the performance of the reel ,the bushing shouldn't be touching the spindle in proper use ,ie with the reel held horizontal (facing upwards) and the spool pivoted on the centre grub screw atop of the spindle / pin .the bushing separated from the spindle via a thin layer of oil .

only if the tolerance was way out due to heavy wear ,would replacement be needed.

[Nobby]

Hi Anchorman, it IS an old image of Boscombe Road now, but it wasn't when I put it up first some years ago :-) That image is from 1999.

The 'factory unit' is now demolished and the house beside it in Westville Road extended or knocked down and on the footprint of both either a new build house of part of the adjacent Greenside Primary School which shares a similar white boxy build. It's also possible the new build is part of RPM in Godwin road at the Old Treacle Factory....you just can't make it out for certain. EDIT: See below....

The Google earth image from 2006 is the sharpest due to some oblique sunlight. In 2008 the workshop appear to be roofless...you can make out the rooms inside. In 2010 it really does look like a new-build house.

In 1984 the premises of 50-52( they share a front door)had an enforcement notice served on them for extending the building into the rear garden. This appears to be a conversion of an allowed PVC canopy from 1979...the same year a recording studio was allowed in the basement!

Nothing on the Hammersmith and Fulham website mentions the workshop in Westville Road.


What is there now,I think it's flats..there are several letterboxes, seem to bear the numbers 124 and 132 on the gates. That would make the school 102 to 122...which might be right.

13 pages of Westville Road building applications and I can find nothing for a number so high.....but I can find applications for 180, 182 and 184 which appear not to exist!



OK, I think I've worked it out. In 2009 the local Council acquired the workshop and gave it the new addresses of 180, 182 and 184 Westville Road W12 9PT. These three flats were built as social housing in accordance with Government instructions to Councils to utilise all un-used land that might be made into housing.
The flats are administrated by Octavia Housing, who I knew of when I worked in nearby Notting Hill in the Seventies and Eighties.

At sometime the Council has obtained the old workshop, possibly as a Compulsory Purchase but I can find no record of that yet.


What is surprising is that there appears to be no direct access to the workshop from No.52:





The above is the plan used in a recent urgent application to increase the boundary wall height and provide a window to a bathroom of one of the flats.




The current layout of nos. 50 and 52..it seems clear they were two properties once, but now share a front door. I've no idea what the 22 behind them is but it might have once provided direct access to the workshop.


Ah..got it! 22 Goodwin Road is the recording studio that was once part on 52 Boscombe Road:

http://public-access.lbhf.gov.uk/online ... 8901812FUL


Fancy letting a recording studio be there.....making reels and rod fitting must have been much quieter......


I've just discovered No 42 was a dairy in 1946 the application by Messrs'. Garland and Place. Garland was a fairly common name in Hammersmith. Might these people be the proprietors of WR Products....the name doesn't fit though....

The unit went on to became a model-making studio which applied for a first floor to added in 1973 . This was initially refused as it would detriment any addition 'to the Starch green Luncheon Club'....this refusal was also sent to all the Boscombe Road houses we are interested in, including No.52...perhaps this Club was behind all of them? It seems to have gone ahead in 1977 though and this was later converted into 3 flats in 2009...the same year the workshop was converted to housing. Below was an electronics studio and as stated, later a recording studio though this was also part of No.52 Boscombe Road.

[Beryl]

I finally got a good Deluxe. But it looks cheap along side a Match Aerial. The latter is a problem in wind but it is a much more beautiful.

[Match Aerial]

Going on the prices these speedia reels are making these days Beryl, I think people are forgetting a match aerial was a top quality reel.
The speedia was a budget price centrepin, like you say you can see and feel the difference no comparision really.

[NiceRoach]

I finally got a good Deluxe. But it looks cheap along side a Match Aerial. The latter is a problem in wind but it is a much more beautiful.

I think the popularity of the Speedia is associated on it's minimalist looks, and other 'vague history', not forgetting of course the sheer joy to trot.

A truly simplistic design, on true pin, no frills. Thousands upon thousands of them 'turned' out on very decent quality aluminium dark looks,and virtually wiped company history. Dead simple reel, that spins like a dream.


That's why I like it, though I also like J.W 's

[Nobby]

The Match Aerial may be a quality offering but it lacks the easy start up of the Speedia desperately...the huge heavy drum takes quite a lot of energy to get it turning, whereas the Speedia turns so much more easily.

The MA suffers from ambition...any reel with a substantially strong drum of those dimensions can't fail to be heavy....by staying small and light the Speedia out-trots most centrepins.

Certainly it can't be treated roughly, but it turns easier and it tends to spoil the balance of a light rod less.

It can have its check turned on or off by the hand holding the rod, which a match Aerial never could and it can have its check pawl reversed for either left or right hand wind as required.....


I know which reel I prefer...

In fact the early Speedias are built to an equal standard to the MA yet with all of the above advantages. Only later ones lack the hand-built quality.