Page 22 - PBCOctober2017

Pickwick Bicycle Club Magazine Volume 14 No.2 October 2017 @22

Tales of Yesteryear by Mr Brooks……….

Following several abortive telephone calls, Mr Brooks accosted me at the Spring
Luncheon, clutching two articles of an historic nature. Having discussed them as potential
copy for the magazine, I was then reprimanded for randomly folding said items (photo
copies!), and had to re-fold them to preserve their condition.

One article item was from the July 1919 Cycling magazine, The World of Wheels page.
This raised the question once more about which was the first cycling club. (Remember the
ABC Club from the March issue of our magazine). Unfortunately the quality of the copy
(nothing to do with the folding) precludes copying it so I have carefully reproduced it
herewith.

“An Early Cycling Club”
Te queston of which was te first cycling club to be formed in te Unitd Kingdom has
never been definitly decided, altough it is agreed tat te Pickwick BC is te senior club of
tose stl existng. It is certain, however, tat te Pickwick was not te first, as documentary
evidence, in te form of a membership card of te Hanley Velocipede Club has recently come
into te hands of Mr J.Hughes, of Cobridge, which shows tat te organisaton named came
t
into existnce on July 12 1869. Te subscripton is statd to be £1.1s, and if frter
confirmaton of te club’s birtday is required, it may be found in te columns of te
t
Staffordshire Sentnel of June 12 1869, wherein appears te folowing advertsement:

‘ Hanley Velocipede Club – persons desirous of becoming members are requested to enrol themselves
forthwith, as the number for which arrangements have been made is limited. Amend personally at
Saunders’ Commercial Hotel, Hanley, where the bicycle can be seen.’

Tere is a “mater-of-fact” tne about tis announcement, which suggests tat a velocipede
club was by no means unique in tose days, so it has yet to proved which was te first to be
nd
founded. Te Pickwick dats fom June 22 1870.

So, we are left with a dilemma that based on this information, there was a cycling club in
existence almost a year prior to the formation of the PBC. However we can comfort
ourselves with the reference in the first sentence of this article – “The Pickwick BC is the
senior club of those still existing”