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Beginnings
The company’s founder, Edward
Lisle, was born in 1852 at 106 Dudley Road,
Wolverhampton. His education at St. Luke's School ended
in 1866, at the age of 14, after which
it is believed that he joined his brother working on the
railway. In the 1871 census he is described as a machine
fitter.
Edward became interested in cycles,
and in his spare time built a velocipede in the cellar
of the family's next home at 71 Park Street, Wolverhampton.
He entered some of the races that took place in the
grounds of the Molineux Hotel and was very successful,
riding his home-built machine. This led to a demand for
his cycles, which he started building to order.
In 1876, at the age of 24, he went
into a manufacturing partnership with Edwin John
Sharratt, who lived at 15 Franchise Street,
Wolverhampton, and is described in the 1871 census as an
out of work coachman.
Edwin purchased the ex-Humber
factory in Pountney Street, known as the Star Cycle
Works, and joined Edward in the new business; Sharratt
and Lisle. The partnership lasted for just 3 years,
after which Edwin Sharratt decided that he wanted to go
his own way, and left to start his own separate
business, Sharratt and Company, in part of the Pountney
Street factory.
In 1883 Edward Lisle founded the
Star Cycle Company, but continued to sell his machines
under the Sharratt & Lisle name until 1896, when he
founded the Star Cycle Company Limited, with a starting
capital of £120,000.
In March 1891 Edward Lisle
registered the six-pointed star as the company's
trademark. Number 155,130. By 1889 the Star Cycle Company had
purchased a factory in Stewart Street, and in 1899
production reached 10,000 cycles a year. By 1904 Star
was the largest Wolverhampton-based cycle manufacturer. |
