TII bought out Hercules in 1954, TII owned Raleigh. Prior to 1954 Hercules was a stand alone brand and was built in Birmingham England.(which was why I asked about the drop outs) Once they started producing them at the Nottingham plant they were basically nothing more than a re-badged Raleigh Sports. They were also producing Triumph, Dunelt, Robin Hood and several other brands from the Nottingham works. I am not sure why redneckwes's has the thimble fork, I don't believe that to be a Hercules feature and suspect it may have been swapped out. I think the '71 hub is right for the age of your bike. There is very little information on the specific Hercules models. I have a Hercules Skyliner that I got from PastorBob and it is a very unusual bike in that it is a single speed freewheel and rod brakes, with 26x1-3/8" wheels. All we know for sure about the bike is that it was built prior to 1954 and based on the round headbadge it could go all the way back to the late 30's early 40's. BTW it is a drop frame too.

Aaron