Hercules Jeep My First Bicycle

Scooters, Bikes & Trikes

My First Bicycle - The Hercules Jeep

I was given my first bike for my ninth birthday in 1948. It was a Black Hercules Jeep a 24 inch wheeled sit-up-and-beg style with rod brakes. It was bought from George Irving, Main Street, Cockermouth.

At one end of Bridge Street where I lived was the Main Street and at the other a long bridge over the river Derwent to the mills. Once over the bridge you were in lonnins (lanes) that were traffic free. I can’t imagine the miles my father ran teaching me to ride. One of the most memorable incidents was while pedaling along the back lonnin towards a right bend I realised there was no-one holding the bike. After a quick wobble I went straight into a huge patch of nettles. I was badly stung all down my left side. (Short trousers and sleeves rolled up). On the plus side I was in my 30’s before my left arm or leg responded to a nettle sting.

It did good service until one lunchtime in around 1952/3 I was riding up Lorton Road to the Grammar School when a woman in a car coming down the road pulled out to pass a parked car and drove straight over the bit of road me and the Jeep were occupying. The Jeep went under the car and I went over it landing face down on the road. I had deep scratched on my forehead, a sore nose and flat areas ground on the lenses of my glasses. Somehow the driver managed to avoid any responsibility and for a while I was a pedestrian until the Super Lenton turned up.