Why people ask this bike shop to fix TVs - and if they have stamps and shoelaces

It may seem strange for people looking to for someone fix their broken TVs to ask a bike mechanic, but Threadgold's isn't your usual cycle shop.

Having occupied the same premises on Hollyhedge Road, Wythenshawe, for 91-years, it would be fair to say the local community have come to rely on it, and not just for bikes. The shop has been run by husband and wife, Paul and Caroline Briggs since 2010, who took over from the original Threadgold family who had been in the cycle business since 1905.

To put that into perspective, the first commercially successful safety bike – the rear wheel chain-driven bike design we know today – had only been around 20-years; before that you were taking your life in your hands up a Penny Farthing. And it's Threadgold's long history in Manchester that's to blame for the non-cycling related requests they still get to this day.

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Caroline, 47, told the MEN: "When we got the shop people would come in to buy batteries, lightbulbs. It specialised in bikes but they also seemed to have a lot of other random DIY type things people wanted."

"We still get people asking us to fix random things. Best one was 'Do you fix TVs?' We said 'no we're a bike shop, we don't do TVs' but the customer was convinced we could do it so we said, 'bring it in', and sure enough, we fixed it."

Other strange requests they have received include customers coming in for brown shoe laces and asking if they can fix their lawnmower. The answer is better understood when you consider the shop's rich history.

The first Threadgold's shop opened on Great