Hay Hall Works, Tyseley, Birmingham. Telephone: Acocks Green 1607. Telegraphic Address: "Butted". (1937)
1875 He retired, passing leadership of the company to sons Edwin and Alfred John.
1881 Edwin died.
1890 Alfred John's sons, John Henry and Alfred Milward, joined John Reynolds and Sons, Ltd.
1897 Alfred M. Reynolds and J. T. Hewitt patented butted tubing.
1898 The predecessor to today's Reynolds bicycle tubing company was formed, called The Patent Butted Tube Co, on 20th December.
1902 The Patent Butted Tube Co published its first bicycle tubing catalogue, boasting a 4½-pound tube set.
1916 During World War I, The Patent Butted Tube Co started manufacturing tubing for military bicycles and motorcycles.
1917 With wartime production, The Patent Butted Tube Co relocated to a large Tudor house known as Hay Hall in Tyseley.
1923 The Patent Butted Tube Co., Ltd. changed its name to Reynolds Tube Co, Ltd.
1924 Reynolds introduced high manganese tubing.
1928 Reynolds Tube Co was acquired by Tube Investments.
1935 Max Bigford and Austyn Reynolds introduced the Reynolds 531 tubeset, in manganese-steel alloy.
1937 Steel tube and aluminium alloy tubes, bars and sections.
1937 Listed Exhibitor - British Industries Fair. Seamless Steel Precision Tubes, in plain and alloy steels, Seamless Tubes, Extruded bars and Sections, in high strength aluminium and magnesium alloys. Manipulated Tubes and Sections and Built-up Components. (Stand Nos. D.725 and D.624)
1939 During WWII, Reynolds ceased bicycle tube production and switched production to fighter plane tubing for the Spitfire. Hundreds of Reynolds employees volunteered to serve in the Home Guard.
In 1958. '61 and '69, Luxembourg, France and Belgium each won the Tour de France on a Reynolds built and/or tubed bicycle.
1951. Ken Sprayson, "The Frame Man", developed the Norton Featherbed of McCandless design. He also built the leading link forks designed by Ernie Earles and which later became a household name when used by MV Agusta and BMW.
1976 Reynolds introduced heat-treated 753 tubing which rapidly became the competition tubing of choice worldwide.
1995 Reynolds introduced the world's first commercial air-hardening steel for bicycle frame tubes.
2000 A management buy-out on 24th January, took Reynolds back into private ownership, whilst keeping all the employees. Manufacturing of metallic products continued at Tyseley. The company is named Reynolds Cycle Technology (2000) Ltd.
2006 The company was renamed Reynolds Technology Ltd, to reflect the increasing revenues from diversification into new sectors for tubing outside the cycle industry.
2007 After 90 years at Redfern Road, the company moved to a modern factory building in Shaftmoor Lane, Birmingham.
Reynolds was a moped produced by Reynolds Tubes between 1955 and 1956.
A attractive prototype was built with a two-speed German Victoria engine hung from a beam frame, and both front and rear suspension. Reynolds had no intention of producing it themselves and no-one else took it up.
Source: Graces Guide
