This Thanet Silverlight was delivered to P.S. Wells of Crawley on 9 December 1950, so perhaps Santa visited early that year. Indeed, the weather was suitably Arctic, with records showing it was the coldest December since 1890, with widespread heavy snow and persistent ice.
Holed up in these conditions, it’s unlikely that ‘P.S.’ would have cycled the popular 22-mile route to Brighton pier until the following spring, but I bet that, if he or she finally made the trip, they would have worn a permanent grin. It was a very desirable bike.
“The Silverlight was a ‘clubman’s’ bike,” explains current owner Richard Hoddinott o
