The C.M. Hunt Papers

I’ve been meaning to write up this short article for the last six months; ever since Pete Dungey kindly lent me his folder of historical receipts and letters from C.M. Hunt at the end of last year.

C.M. Hunt was a well known bicycle, motorcycle and pram shop in Long Street, Sherborne and had been trading for many years.  I’m not sure when it finally closed for business but probably late 1980’s or early 1990’s; if someone in our Section knows, please do let me know.

The Shop

I’ve managed to find a few historical photographs of the shop.  I took the ones in 2018, but having been back to Long Street this year (2019), I noticed the shop is now vacant.  Note the “The Old Cycle Shop” above the door.

The Papers (Receipts, Invoices, Letters)

Pete tells me that when the shop finally closed, 80 years of paperwork ended up in a skip.  He rescued a tiny fraction of this, mainly the receipts from 1919 and 1926/1927 with a few other papers from the 1950s and 1960s.  To my eyes, the artwork & printing in some of these documents is beautiful, so I scanned them so others can see them.  So much nicer that today’s soulless bits of paper.

Seems like C.M. Hunt dealt with all the British motorcycle manufacturers of the time!  The 1951 Royal Enfield letter is interesting; although it doesn’t mention it, the worldwide nickel shortage during that year was due to the Korean War and affected all manufacturers.

Papers (1919):

Papers (1926 – 1927):

Papers (later years):