Hendy & Harber

It was with the excitement of a twitcher spotting a golden eagle that I read an email from Tom, who found a Hendy & Harber whilst sorting his dad's attic. His dad owned it from new, and it still has the old wax and a 1971 Newquay licence, and Tom doubts its been used since. He also sent a photo of his dad surfing it in 1970, see below, a classic image.

H&H didn't make a lot of boards, and many are now extinct. Although the label says Newquay, they were actually made in the village of Roche, near St Austell. It seems production of Hendy & Harber boards began in 1969 and ceased in 1972, during which time Rob Hendy estimates they turned out about 200 boards.
These were sold at various outlets: a shop in Hayle, Mick Jackman's "Maui" shop by the old Blue Lagoon (next to Great Western), John Conway's shop in Fore Street, but mostly by word of mouth. A guy called "Buttercup" , an Aussie lifeguard who worked Fistral beach did quite a bit of shaping as did Rob Hendy, another guy called John Bell did sanding, plus there were guest shapers invited for short periods. Gary Harber was solely on the financial side . The premises were upstairs of the grocery shop owned by Gary's Dad - I wonder if the residents of Roche ate fruit and veg covered in a fine layer of resin dust ?! The building is now flattened, and the history of H&H has become lost in the mists of time, resurrected only by the memories of people like Rob Hendy and Graham, so thanks to them.
Its a good looking board, a 7'3 'double ender' with a pretty eggshell green tint. And I like the fact its been in an attic for 40 years, a real time capsule. It has a Bilbo fin system , as did most of the H&H's ,with an orange fin. I look forward to seeing it in the flesh when I go to visit Tom next week. Cheers to Tom for the photos.

Tom's dad riding the H&H, 1970

Photo of Tom's aunt taken in 1967 with a nice evolution style singlefin.