Page 62 - Hindsight Issue 26 April 2020

HeRItAge
CYCLING MEDALS AND FOBS
Peter Waddell
The mass production of the bicycle in the late Victorian period gave rise to many
[1]
cycling clubs. It is said there were 12 cycling clubs in Northampton in the
1880s. In his regular article for Hindsight, Peter Waddell writes about the very small number of cycling medals he has found.
Northampton Trade Directory Lea & Co. 1893-4, records ten bicycle and tricycle makers and repairers and eight bicycle and tricycle agents in the town. Unfortunately, this directory does not list cycle clubs. Kelly’s Trade Directory 1890 only lists three cycle clubs within the county – oundle Cycle Club, Peterborough Cycle Club and Peterborough tricycle Club. there is no mention of northampton clubs. It is known,[2][3] that, in northampton, the st James Cycle Club, the northamptonshire Bicycle Club, Victoria Cycling Club, College street Cycling Club, the All saints Cycling Club, the good templers Cycling Club and the Clarion Club were all active at the time. so it is not unreasonable to assume other major towns within the county such as Wellingborough and Kettering could have cycle clubs. Certainly, Kelly’s Directory 1910 lists a new club, the thrapston & District Cycle Club, but the same Directory lists 62 cycle agents, 12 cycle dealers and 42 cycle manufacturers within the county.
Many of the clubs that formed were recreational touring clubs, but often members took part in competitive racing and timed competitions. In 1878 one Joseph grose is known[4] to have taken part in a one Mile open Handicap, held on a cycle track behind the Half Way House pub in Kingsthorpe Hollow. other cycle races took
St James’s Cycle Club of Northampton 1898
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