Vintage Antique Weights Woofs Patent Cheltenham No 2 Dumbbells 1890s William Albert Woof Cricketer Cricket Gloucestershire

Item - Pair of Early William Albert 'Woofs' Patent Gentlemen's Dumbbells, Circa 1890. William Woof (9th July 1858 - 4th April 1937) was an English Cricketer who played for Gloucestershire from 1878 to 1902 and for MCC between 1882 and 1885.

Woof was born in Gloucester and educated at Bedford School, after leaving school he apprenticed as an Engineer. At the age of Twenty he played for the Gloucestershire Colts where he took wickets from the legendary W G Grace who was to get Woof a professional post teaching at Chelteham College where he would would stay until 1925. Whilst teaching he also had a very successful professional career in First Class Cricket that started in 1878 and would last until 1902 and include 160 first class matches...Woof was also a first-class umpire and the managing director of W.A.Woof Limited of Cheltenham which exsisted from the early 1890s.

W.A.Woof Limited was a sports outfitting shop located in Suffolk Road in Cheltenham and records show that William Woof, a professional cricketer occupied the property in 1891 and even though Woof Limited was to expand over the years it remained on Suffolk Road, Cheltenham until the early 1970s.

These particular dumbbells are from the very early part of Woofs history and would most certainly date between 1890-1900 and could be in fact from prior to the business being established...though unfortunately our research has not given a date to when the Patent was granted.