Jack Frodsham - Warrington

[oldcars]

My reliant still has the original dealer sticker in the back window.

I have tried to find info out online about them but there is nothing i can find. Anyone from the area remember them? Car is 1983 Y plate so they must have been open at this time. From the sticker they sold Reliants & Honda bikes.

[Bren]

No dealers on Winwick St any more - to be honest I cannot remember ever seeing one.

[Ghosty]

Some Google-fu told me there used to be a Vauxhall/Opel dealer there.

[MrFarkinBasz]

top car sticker though!

[Guest xj40man]

I know I am ressurecting an old post but I came across this when doing some research. Jack Frodsham Limited was indeed a multi franchise motorcycle and Reliant dealer in Warrington for many years. I worked there as a salesman from about 1979 to 1984 and earned the princely sum of £1 commission for selling a bike and £2 for a Reliant   Iirc we sold Triumph, Lambretta, CZ, Honda, Yamaha and NVT bikes.

The workers at Tamworth must have all had bad knees as they never quite seemed to paint all the way down to the bottom of the body, I would get a can of matching spray out of the stores and finish the job for them    

The boss was called Mr Etherington, we had a one armed storeman and a tea lady called Gladys who was a bit of a rum 'un.  

 

I remember selling fully comp insurance for a Honda 90 or similar was £17.50pa, any driver 

 

It closed down a number of years later and the building was demolished and redeveloped. 

 

There was also another bike shop further up the road called Bill Pope Motorcycles, they were a Suzuki dealer.

 

I had a choice of any motorcycle to go home on, first day I worked there I went home on a 1000 BMW, Happy days.

[oldcars]

I know I am ressurecting an old post but I came across this when doing some research. Jack Frodsham Limited was indeed a multi franchise motorcycle and Reliant dealer in Warrington for many years. I worked there as a salesman from about 1979 to 1984 and earned the princely sum of £1 commission for selling a bike and £2 for a Reliant   Iirc we sold Triumph, Lambretta, CZ, Honda, Yamaha and NVT bikes.

The workers at Tamworth must have all had bad knees as they never quite seemed to paint all the way down to the bottom of the body, I would get a can of matching spray out of the stores and finish the job for them    

The boss was called Mr Etherington, we had a one armed storeman and a tea lady called Gladys who was a bit of a rum 'un.

 

I remember selling fully comp insurance for a Honda 90 or similar was £17.50pa, any driver 

 

It closed down a number of years later and the building was demolished and redeveloped. 

 

There was also another bike shop further up the road called Bill Pope Motorcycles, they were a Suzuki dealer.

 

I had a choice of any motorcycle to go home on, first day I worked there I went home on a 1000 BMW, Happy days.

Thanks for this, very interesting. There is a good chance you originally sold my Reliant, April 1983 would have been the sale date, a blue Rialto GLS do you remember selling it    .

Thanks for your post, made my day been trying yo find out a bit of history about my old car. Thanks again.

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

That's interesting information.  I don't remember the dealer, but I do remember seeing the stickers on cars.

 

I recognise that Jag in your profile! It is a superb car. 

 

I am 'David' on xj40.com. It will come as a surprise to many on here, but 'Magnificent Rustbucket' isn't my real name. I called myself that here for some reason when I joined one evening. I'd had a bit too much booze and it seemed amusing. I regretted it immediately - it takes ages to type and sounds a bit pretentious!

 

Maybe my rustbucket is 'Magnificent' in the same way the Great Flydini was great?

[Guest xj40man]

I probably did sell it, tell me the first three letters of the reg number which may jog my old brain cells. Lots of memories flooding back now.... JFL also had some workshops in the railway arches near Central Station. At one point one of them was full to the brim of British motorbikes which at the time nobody wanted. It was that full you had to walk across the bike seats to get from one side to the other. Anyway the whole lot were sent for scrap, how times change.

[HillmanImp]

I thought that Jack Frodsham was the Sausage King of Chicago or am I getting him confused with someone else?

[KED453F]

On 5/29/2015 at 6:08 PM, Guest xj40man said:

I know I am ressurecting an old post but I came across this when doing some research. Jack Frodsham Limited was indeed a multi franchise motorcycle and Reliant dealer in Warrington for many years. I worked there as a salesman from about 1979 to 1984 and earned the princely sum of £1 commission for selling a bike and £2 for a Reliant   Iirc we sold Triumph, Lambretta, CZ, Honda, Yamaha and NVT bikes.

The workers at Tamworth must have all had bad knees as they never quite seemed to paint all the way down to the bottom of the body, I would get a can of matching spray out of the stores and finish the job for them    

The boss was called Mr Etherington, we had a one armed storeman and a tea lady called Gladys who was a bit of a rum 'un.  

 

I remember selling fully comp insurance for a Honda 90 or similar was £17.50pa, any driver 

 

It closed down a number of years later and the building was demolished and redeveloped. 

 

There was also another bike shop further up the road called Bill Pope Motorcycles, they were a Suzuki dealer.

 

I had a choice of any motorcycle to go home on, first day I worked there I went home on a 1000 BMW, Happy days.

Hi do you know any more about Bill pope motors Ltd please they supplied my Triumph spitfire mk3 in November 1967  when it was new l would like to find a photo of the garage or some advertising for them, It looks like they ended up as a motorbike dealer, from reading your post they might have been a car and motor bike dealer in the 1960s? 

[ian_s]

I lived & worked in Warrington up to about 1979.

I remember Jack Frodsham's (or Froddies as it was often known) – and Bill Pope up the road. Sad to see on Streetview that not even the buildings exist. Only the old pub is there.

Many people who shared the Froddies experience, a little slice of local culture, are either gone or won't be around for too much longer. It is worth adding a few words so that anyone else looking for these lost aspects of Warrington life can find them later.

My memory puts the shop approximately here, but it might be a bit off. It has all changed almost beyond recognition: https://maps.app.goo.gl/y73Un7FJa1h9ajT37

My first ever bike was a used Honda CD175 from Pope's. Didn't go there much afterwards. Frodsham was a Honda dealer so parts came from there, and my second bike also. December 1977 I think. I remember a few things. Scruffy place full of bikes of all sorts, new and used. I went in to buy a Honda 400 Dream like my mate's. Salesman Arthur(?) sold me a Triumph Bonneville T140V instead. He didn't have to try too hard!

Wild riding and Meriden's engineering 'prowess' meant the Saturday morning ritual was to queue for a long time in Froddies' parts department to buy another bit for the Bonnie. Parts were served by a cheerless gent who only had one arm. Paper-based parts books would be pored over, interminable trips to the stock room, sharply posed questions about the year / model / exact thing I wanted… mostly out of stock. Come back next week, we might have it then [or we might not - take it or leave it sonny].

I found an old pic of that approximate location. Can't quite make out if Froddies is in the distance this side of he junction or  just out of shot. Memory is a bit hazy. I remember the inside more than the outside.

The shop front was on Winwick Street. I remember when I collected the Bonnie, I was taken out the back to the workshop area and exited that way on to another road, soon coming out on Winwick St.

 

[lesapandre]

Well worth recording any history like this. Either place in with a local history society or reference library etc. Have a look round and see who's about.

These memories soon fade. Here is famous racer John Surtees family motorcycle business on London's South Circular - and what's left of it now.

[DSdriver]

Did the Surtees business move to West Wickham or was that some other famous racing bod?

[lesapandre]

Yes John Surtees opened premises in West Wickham - long gone. Also he had a works in Edenbridge.

[DSdriver]

Thanks. I lived there back then. Also Paul Dunstall had a bike shop that I produced a catalogue for.