On 2 April 1949 the British government allowed coloured
lighting, floodlighting and neon signs to
be switched on for the first time since the outbreak of World War II.
On the same day Tony Hadland
was born in Reading, Berkshire. Although there is no connection between
these two events, Tony
hopes that his writings are in some small way illuminating, if not
colourful.
Tony Hadland studied architecture at the Oxford School of Architecture
but after passing the Part 1 Diploma devoted his studies to building
surveying. He is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered
Surveyors and a former Corporate Member of the Institute of Information
Scientists. For 29 years he worked in the property services department
of Barclays Bank. He joined as a junior architectural assistant in a
regional office and left as operational risk manager, reporting
directly to the managing director of the department. At various times
he was based in Reading, London and Coventry, and held positions
including building surveyor, architectural team leader, technical
writer, technical information manager and information security manager.
From 2004 until 2009, Tony was administrator of the
award-winning Vale
& Downland Museum
in Wantage, Oxfordshire. He is also
a freelance editor, writer and document designer: as at 2009 he is
working on a new book by his friend Arnfried Schmitz. Tony is on
the advisory board for the refurbishment and improvement of
Abingdon
County Hall Museum, Oxfordshire; chairs the advisory
committee
of the Alex
Moulton Museum in Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire; is an
occasional advisor to the Museum of Computing, Swindon; and
is an
occasional advisor to, and helper at, the Pendon
Museum, Long
Wittenham, Oxfordshire. Tony is also Vice-Chairman of the Oxfordshire
Family History Society and in 2009 became editor of its
journal, Oxfordshire
Family Historian. He is also on the committee of the Oxfordshire
Local History Association.
In the early 1970s, Tony was a freelance radio disc jockey.
For two
years, he created the weekly "English Spot" on the top-rated Jamazaki
show broadcast from BRT2 FM, Brussels.
For the same station he recorded monthly in-depth interviews with
British rock stars, including
artistes as diverse as Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin, Maddy Prior of
Steeleye Span and Cliff
Richard. During this period Tony also produced many of BBC Radio
London's promotional voice-overs
and jingles, and did stand-in work on BBC Radio Oxford.
Tony was a co-presenter of a special all-British edition of the Belgian
rock show
Slalom. It featured many top acts of the day and a
bunch of impressively flash newcomers
called Queen. But perhaps Tony's most unusual broadcasting-related
achievement was doing the
voice-over for a Wranglers jeans advert in Flemish.
For reminiscences of his disc jockey days, go to this site.
Tony's interest in bicycles started in childhood. His first
bike
was a 'hand-me-down' from an uncle - a pre-War Raleigh sports machine
with a close-ratio Sturmey-Archer hub. Later he used an old black BSA
three-speed hub. Both drew derision from his school chums. Thus he grew
a thick skin - useful for any non-conformist in the world of cycling.
Impressed by John Woodburn's legendary Cardiff-London record, Tony
bought his first Moulton in
November 1964. With this great load carrier he delivered newspapers and
earned enough money to
finance his first trip abroad - to Belgium, Germany and The Netherlands
by bicycle. Leaving home
the day after England beat Germany in the 1966 soccer World Cup, he and
two friends enjoyed a great
two week holiday for about £24 each. They even spotted
England skipper Bobby Moore as they cycled
through London on the way to the Dover ferry.
In March 1980, Tony's brother Paul sent him a cutting from The
Sunday Times. This
featured Michael Woolf of Moulton Preservation. Tony contacted Mike to
suggest that a booklet be
produced to widen awareness of the versatility of the Moulton bicycle.
This led to the modest first
edition of The Moulton Bicycle and the start of
Tony's career as a writer.
Apart from the books described on his website, Tony wrote and edited
many technical manuals for Barclays Bank, both paper and screen-based.
He has contributed significant material to other editors' books, on
matters as diverse as retail bank design, information management,
information security and cycle history. He has also edited books by
other authors, such as Mike Burrows's Bicycle Design (now
in its third edition). Tony
is increasingly involved in pre-press work, such as the design of the
book Sunbeam Cycles, which he also edited and
partly researched. You can read his (slightly out
of date) bibliography here.
In the 1980s, Tony scripted, filmed and produced many corporate videos.
In the late 1990s, with the late John Pinkerton, he produced in-depth
video interviews with several cycling greats, including Jack
Lauterwasser and Alex Moulton. Tony has also written articles for
magazines such as Cycling
Plus, Bycycle, Cycling Science, New Cyclist, Encycleopedia, The
Boneshaker, Human Power, DJ & Radio Monthly, The Oxfordshire
Family
Historian, Berkshire Family Historian and Catholic
Ancestor. He is a British national and also has Irish
nationality via his Dublin-born maternal grandmother.
He hopes that you enjoy his work. Although he cannot guarantee to
respond to every
communication, he takes your feedback
seriously and thanks you for your interest.
