Cyril Smith (1908-1975) was born in London, and lived in Holland Park with his four brothers and two sisters. His mother, Madame Regina Crutcher, owned a second hand dress shop in Portobello Road. Before the war he would wander round the market, finding bargains, old bicycles and guns. He was a talented cartoonist and was offered a job on a London paper, but did not want a 9 to 5 job.
Just before the War he married Jackie Payne and they moved to Brent Knoll where he could create his own lifestyle. They rented a dilapidated brick cottage with roses round the door. Rose Cottage.
He was well known for his love of the Ordinary Cycle, also known as the Penny Farthing bicycle, which he collected and rode. He set up The Ordinary Cycle Club at the New Inn in Brent Street. Many youngsters in the 1940s 50s and 60s were active in this Club, and would be seen cycling along Brent Street and the A38.
He also set up a small museum where people could see his collection of 15 roadworthy ‘penny-farthings’ and vintage motorcycles.
Cyril made plaster models of famous people and sold them to the local tourist shops. His wife, Jackie, was the breadwinner as she was an upholsterer, making curtains and covers for the rich folks. Cyril was the ultimate recycler, growing his own food , kept chickens, and shot pigeons to eat and made his own wine.
He also built a steam powered Corgi Motor bike.
He used his talents to paint murals directly on to inside and outside walls of Rose Cottage, showing scenes and people from the village.
Mr and Mrs Fallows, owned the Fish and Chip shop in Oxford Street, and Cyril was often on the premises. One day Mr Fallows said that it was very difficult to make crinkle cut chips. Cyril took a potato home with him. A week later he arrived in the shop with the potato, around which was a rubber band. He removed the band to show a pile of crinkle cut chips. He had designed and constructed a crinkle cut chip cutting machine. A representative of a Catering Machine firm was in the shop later and heard about this amazing invention. He went out at Brent to find Cyril to try to persuade him to sell the machine to the firm. But Cyril would have none of it; he wasn’t interested.
Sadly, Mr Fallows was the person who found Cyril dead in Rose Cottage, in 1975
Thanks to Pat Nicholls for research and Alan Wheway for artwork pictures.
I lived just down the road from Cyril Smith when I was a child and well remember him and many of his visitors riding his penny farthings along Brent Street. What a revelation it was to see the murals on his walls, I had no idea! He was known as an clever, eccentric gentleman.
Thanks for your comment Clare. Cyril was certainly an interesting character.
Below is a link to a pic of Smithy, my father Malcolm Laver, and two unidentified ladies
https://tinyurl.com/yc4f54wy
Thanks for the great picture Dan. Would you like us to upload it directly to the page?
Feel free to display it on the page, Nigel. I scanned a better quality version below
https://tinyurl.com/kwz3k7ur
A bit more detail from my mother Katina Harvey, née Broome.
She thinks the ladies are my father’s first wife (Peggy?) and Mrs. Smith.
Cyril smith was 63 when he died so he must have been born 1912…..his grave is in st Michael’s church, alongside his brother Arthur and other relatives.
My information came largely from the public records (GRO – General Records Office) which has a death of a
Cyril George SMITH who died in the June quarter of 1975 and registered at Sedgemeoor registration district, which covers Burnha and Brent Knoll.
It also gives his date of birth as “15AU1908”.
This is the information that I have relied upon, not having any means of corroborating the information. This would put him as being 67 at the time of his death.
There are two births recorded for a Cyril George SMITH, both of them in W.Ham (London). One is in the September quarter and is most likely to be your uncle.
The second Cyril was registered in the following quarter, December 1908, which is less likely to be him
I have not been to the graveyard in Brent Knoll but will do so in the not too distant future.
It was my father-in-law who found Cyril dead in bed – both were eccentric but I think Cyril was far more flamboyant
Alan Wheway
Cyril was my beloved uncle he taught me so many wonderful things and how to ride a one wheel bike and s penny was not keen on eating pigeon
Thanks also for your comment Suzanne, and your memories.Cyril was obviously held in great affection by many.
Hi…. how nice of you to post these happy memories of my uncle Cyril. Much appreciated and sad that Mr fallowes found him before his chipper was developed. Thank you burnham
Thank you very much for your comment Simone. Glad we could spark some happy memories.