Tags
Barbel Fishing, Bristol Cars, Garry Mills, Morgan Motor Company, Speedia Deluxe, Speedia MKII, Speedia Reel, Toby Silverton, W R Products, W R Products Shepherds Bush
Having covered off in a post yesterday the recent acquisition of a ‘naked’ Speedia Wide Drum reel I thought it was worth while looking into the history of the business that operated out of Shepherds Bush W12, 52 Boscombe Road, as it transpires there is little to be found. There are some good snippets of information on other blogs http://centrepins.yuku.com and http://barbelfishingworld.yuku.com/topic/11316/t/A-step-closer-to-solving-the-Speedia-quot-W-R-Mystery-quot.html, but what is evident is that W R Products didn’t really market their products that well.
My Early Narrow drum Speedia MKII
The Speedia reel didn’t really change that much, much in the same way as the Bristol Cars and Morgan Motor Company produced their cars, the same classic shape with tweaks here and there and a few power house developments but on the whole principally the basic shape never changed, well not until the likes of Toby Silverton produced the gull wing, 200mph plus Fighter (see http://www.bristolcars.co.uk) and Morgan the streamlined Aero. What W R Products had done was to create an iconic reel that for many was the ‘Ronseal’ of centrepin reels – to coin a phrase ‘ it does what it says on the tin’, a no-nonsense reel that if well maintained will last a lifetime and spins forever.
A Couple Of Early Speedia MKII’s
The early models of the Speedia reel were made from an alloy boss with attached brass foot, alloy spool made of two flange plates with brass spindles and a simple ratchet and pawl fitted to the casing. Later models were fitted with an adjustable ratchet tensioner. Painted in either black with crackle glaze spools or in some cases a pale grey/green. The reels were fitted with amber coloured handles or dark chocolate-brown and depending on when made the spools were drilled with finger holes, early ones slightly larger and later models smaller. The early models had an engraved W R Products Speedia logo, later models had this cast into the alloy spool casing and the foot was an integrated part of the casing. Detailed on the outer boxes the reels came in with the distinctive yellow and black label were GP MkII and GP MkIV, there is still ambiguity as to the order reels were produced , there were about four different versions covering production from the 50′-70’s until the business went into liquidation in the mid 80’s.
I have seen some early Speedia reels with attached brass line guards. Also I did find at Wimbledon Car Boot a semi closed faced Speedia, regretfully I didn’t buy it as I wasn’t sure what it was even though it had the Speedia logo engraved on it, my thought was a home-made conversion, it didn’t spin that well so left it….
Other developments were the spool release catch which switched from a brass button to lever and then the now sought after Deluxe was launched with an adjustable ratchet, in the form of a cam wheel that has three settings. This modification helped fishing in different flows, one keen barbel fisher I know keeps it on the middle setting making it a perfect feel for both float and ledgering.
Early Speedia MKII Reels, Wide and Narrow Drum, Circa 1950-1960
The Speedia came in narrow and wide drum versions the latter being preferred by barbel fishermen. If there is one reel to have then a good Speedia will not let you down and if you find one that needs a bit of work you can always send it to Garry Mills to sort out.
tales by the riverbank 
I’ve been researching Speedias too, but can find no reference to the company at No.52 in Hammersmith and Fulham Planning apart from a withdrawn application to put a recording studio there in 1973. I was wondering where you got the information they were still trading until the mid Eighties? There’s a possibility the house was connected to a workshop which is now flats( 180-184) in Westville Road and an ex-dairy at 22 Goodwin Road. Unlikely as it sounds these properties all interconnected once.
Nobby
Hi Nobby, thanks for your note. I can’t recall where I got the information from other than I did speak at length with Garry Mill of Mills Tackle as he has serviced a few of my Speedia reels. They were certainly still making reels from the workshop through the 60-70’s. Locally to Hammersmith there were several small tackle manufacturers, one guy made triangular weights from a workshop in Sheen in Ormonde Road. If I find out any more I’ll drop you a line. Best regards, Gary
Thank-you Gary…keep up the good work!