Bicycle shop closes down after 108 years

A bicycle shop which has been in business for more than 108 years has closed suddenly. GEO Dugmore on Bilston Road started out in 1904 and has been passed down through three generations.

But owner Michael Hughes is understood to have decided to call it a day as he has turned 70 and is finding it difficult to compete with other cycle shops. He was unavailable for comment today. Another member of staff, Jim Dunlop, has taken over the credit finance side of the business.

Mr Dunlop said: "The company is still running but the bicycle shop has been closed.

"There's too much competition for bicycles these days.

"We have other parts of the business that are still running. We've let everybody know who needs to know," he added.

A hand-made sign on the front of the shop reads "cycle shop closed".

Mr Hughes had been running the store with his sisters Wendy Bowater and Geraldine Britton.

The original shop was in Ettingshall Road, a short distance from where the shop is now, and anyone visiting it in 1904 would have had to pay the princely sum of £3 19s and 6d in pre-decimal currency for a bicycle.

Mr Hughes's grandfather died young in 1919 so his grandmother Susan carried on running the business with the help of her eldest daughter, Ethel.

They then handed over to Mr Hughes's parents in 1944.

His father was a mechanic for the former Midlands Electricity Board and would work for them during the day before doing repairs for Dugmore's in the evening.

Father-of-two Mr Hughes, from Wheaton Aston, near Wolverhampton, took over Dugmore's in 1975.

In its early years the company had bought frames and enamel from the Mount Cycle Company in Cleveland Street, Wolverhampton.

They made their own brands, including the Criterion, and also sold makes such as Swifts and Dawes.

In more recent years bikes arrived at the shop in cardboard boxes and were assembled on the premises.