Pedally Steve

Sometime over thirty-five years ago we were doing the country show circuit. At that time there were other craftsmen making and selling wooden toys so we needed something that made us look different. The answer was found in an american about scroll saws which gave us the name of an American company which made reproductions of the Barnes Number 2 Velocipede. Pre-internet days we tracked down the company to Lees Summit Missouri and ordered one. It cost nearly $1,500 plus import duties!

The machine having arrived, Steve had to learn to use it to cut names freehand. The first show Was Cottingham Horse Show in 1990 and the first name was "Benjamin". Not the easiest of starts. 

It earned it's keep on the circuit for several years until a shop, Oggs & Doggs on the top deck of Princes Quay in Hull, making for other companies and a financial meltdown, led to it being retired from active service. In fact it went to auction but failed to meet the reserve. A lucky break as it happened.

Fast forward to 2005 and we started back doing markets, revisiting old designs for toys, and I started using the machine in public again. The name Pedally Steve was bestowed on me by three braw lasses at Brampton Folk Festival in July 2007 who christened me that on a now defunct forum and I've adopted it ever since.

For fifteen years I held a street trading licence for York but anno domini caught up with me and I surrendered it post Covid. These days I spend the Summer down in Felixstowe where I have a pitch outside Beach Street, a stone's throw form the beach and the big wheel.