It was a British company based in Deptford, South London, specialising in custom handmade steel bicycle frames.

Ernie Witcomb's father, Tom, a steel worker in local dockyards, started to build frames in 1928 in his east London cellar.

Boult, where he had been working since before World War II and, by 1952, started trading as Witcomb Lightweight Cycles with Wally Green as frame builder.

From its beginning, until 2009, the company's headquarters was located in London, starting in Woolwich, then later moving to Tanners Hill in Deptford.

The next year, Witcomb, while exhibiting in San Francisco, received Princess Alexandra and her husband, Sir Angus Ogilvy.

Witcomb USA was founded in 1972 in East Haddam, Connecticut by Richard Sachs and Peter Weigle.