Thanks all for your positivity! Great forum you have here, really helpful and inspiring
AL N2- I'm in Leicester myself! I used some saddle soap on it that I've had for donkeys, it really brought it up a treat and it's much more pliable now. I was afraid to mess with the tension of the leather but I might give it a bit of a tweak now and see what happens
Cudak888- Thanks for posting that up, brilliant! Looks like that's what it is, nice work! The only difference I can see is that mine doesn't have a locking fork. Perhaps this is the only non-original part of the bike?
Noglider- I'm not sure about the spokes I'll have to scrape some of the paint off and have a look! The wheels are 28 x 1 1/2 inchers, huge old things!
I'll post up some progress pics when I've made some headway, perhaps in a different section if this isn't the right one. Thanks again for your enthusiasm!