British bicycle manufacturer Raleigh has auctioned off the machinery it uses to make its bike frames, ending a 100-year-old tradition.

The Nottingham-based firm, which dates back to Victorian times, now imports most of its frames and in future will concentrate on assembly and painting work.

The frame-making equipment, which was in use right up until Thursday, is estimated to be worth £500,000.

A number of foreign manufacturers bid for the equipment at the auction in Nottingham so they could install it in their own plants.

Raleigh bike-riding Labour MP Alan Simpson, whose Nottingham South constituency includes the factory, is angered by the closure of the frame-making section.

He said: "It is sad that a company with over 100 years' record of producing bikes has come to this. It is now selling off state-of-the-art equipment which will be bought by its competitors from overseas."

'Soul of Nottingham'

Author Alan Sillitoe, whose bestseller Saturday Night, Sunday Morning was based on the Nottingham factory and who worked at the plant from the age of 14, also voiced his disappointment.

He said: "Raleigh is a kind of soul of Nottingham. I'm very sad about it."

Three multi-robot automatic welding machines, which are computer programmed to weld steel together to make frames, were among the auctioned items. They were installed only three years ago.

Equipment for cutting tubing, which cost Raleigh £1m when it was installed less than nine years ago, also went under the hammer at a cut-price.

Charles Moses, from auctioneers DDM Asset Management, said interest in the sale was "phenomenal" with buyers from as far away as the Far East and North America.

In the 1950s Raleigh employed 7,000 people at its main factory in Nottingham and its bicycles were used around the world.

The company started in the Victorian era when Messrs Woodhead, Angois and Ellis made bikes in a tiny workshop in the city's Raleigh Street, hence the name.

By the 1960s parts were increasingly being imported from the Far East where production costs were lower.

The workforce at Nottingham is now just 700, the vast majority of whom are engaged in putting together cycles from imported parts and then painting them in distinctive Raleigh colours.

Only a small number of people were involved in the manufacture of frames for a limited range of the company's cycles.

'Half a million bicycles'

A statement issued by Raleigh said: "Contrary to press reports, Raleigh is not ceasing production of bicycles in Nottingham.

"We are completing a process which was announced in May which involves the cessation of frame manufacture.

"We will continue to control the design, specification and quality of the frames we use and of our final product. We will continue to produce half a million bicycles in Nottingham using our world class painting and assembly facilities."

The company has blamed changes in economic circumstances and British manufacturing for the decision.