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Article from the Newsletter August/September 2008 |
CYCLING TO THE LEFT
The Clarion movement, 113 years old this year, is proof that cycling and politics do mix. There was a time, nearly 100 years ago, when cyclists ruled the roads. The bike was the most carefree, the simplest and the most enjoyable form of transport. It was fast, nimble and quiet and it was available to all but the very poor. Not for nothing was it called "King of the Road". Cycling is still all of these things, but changes in the interim years have tarnished the “revolutionary" potential of the bike at the turn of the century. That was the time when workers in the big towns and cities longed for the moment at the en d of the week when they could head for the country with their friends, their “Clarion" newspapers, and their dreams of a better future. Many were members of Clarion cycling clubs, and they took their inspiration from the Clarion newspaper, started in December 1891 by Robert Blatchford, journalist and author of the popular socialist book ‘Merrie England’. In the first isssue of the Clarion, Blatchford explained the policy of the paper: "The policy of the Clarion is a policy of humanity: a policy not of party, sect or creed, but of justice, of reason and mercy." At the time there was no nationally recognised Labour party and the Clarion newspapers soon became a forum for socialist thought and activity. The cycling boom was just starting. The bone-shaker and the high ordinary (penny-farthing) were rapidly eclipsed by the chain driven safety cycle in the early Nineties and this opened up the pastime to many people - including women. Dunlop's pneumatic tyre further improved ride quality at the end of the century and the first issue of Cycling was published in 1891 with 50 pages of adverts and trade announcements. When the Clarion circulation had settled down to about 30,000 a week, its readers, many of whom were active socialists, were keen to publicise the paper and persuade others to take up the cause. In 1894, the Clarion cycling movement was founded in Birmingham. Several "unions" were set up throughout the country to which individual clubs became affiliated. Cycling was easily the most popular pursuit of the movement which included clubs for scouts, choir singers, handicraft guilds and debating. The cycling clubs had their own badge, clubhouses and cafes. Bugles were used to marshal the runs, which were open to both sexes. Clarion clubs were very popular in the north, especially in places like Manchester, Bolton and Rochdale. For workers in these industrial regions the bike was the only machine which released them from the drudgery of factory work and the confines of the town. This anti-urban feeling was often referred to by Tom Groom, first chairman of the Clarion Cycling movement and writer of “Cyclorama" in the Clarion: "Over the tramlines, past the factory gates, past the silent warehouses, through slumdom, through the straggling village that just divides the country from the town, and then with the back of your hand and the sole of your feet to the smoke and grime of mill and workshop quicken up the pace along the highway to Shrewsbury and the Clarion meet." Groom was referring to the 1914 annual get-together, held that year in Shrewsbury. These Easter gatherings were very well attended, as Groom mentions at the end of his pro-rural column: “Ah! this is better. One can breathe now. Clear away from the murky towns, clear away from the pent up streets; the sun high in the morning sky; the larks singing over the fields, a score or more streets humming a merry tune; a thousand or more other Clarionettes to greet at the meet”. The Easter meetings were the highlight of the year and some clubs would ride all night in order to reach the venue on time. Clarionettes from all parts of the country renewed old friendships, talked about politics and enjoyed a weekend of dancing, cycling and debating. Those absent got short shrift from Groom: "Pooh! He was not at the Worksop meet in 1905. What does he know about socialism and the higher life”. For the rest of the year the Clarion clubs operated like any other touring club with regular weekend rides into the countryside. In the early days, before there were vans to do the job, cyclists would take bundles of Clarion papers and sell them to people living in remote towns and villages. Meetings were were held on village greens to try and win the locals over to the new creed. This kind of behaviour did not go unnoticed by local landowners and occasionally they tried to prevent tenants from offering refreshments to Clarion visitors. More often than not, the local gentry would be met the following Sunday, on their emergence from church, by a crowd of cyclists keen to voice their disapproval. The area around the Kinder mountain was the scene of a more newsworthy Clarion protest in 1934. The Peak mass protest was directed at landowners who wanted to close the area for hunting. Clarion cyclists from Manchester joined rambling sections, led by Benny Rothman, to a march towards the grouse moors. The police turned them back and made some arrests but the protesters had made their point and were successful in establishing a right of way over the moor. The Clarion cycling clubs were most popular in the ten year period up to the First World War. Maximum membership in those days was around 7000 but despite falling numbers, the movement was a significant part of British cycling until after the Second World War. The last Clarion (it was called the New Clarion after June 1932) newspaper was printed in March 1934. After the First World War, Clarion clubs became more involved in cycle racing and this resulted in the setting up of Clarion Cycling and Athletic clubs (C and AC's). Clarion riders took part in the Prague Games in 1927, organised by the British Workers Sports Federation: 'In order that by the healthy spirit of sporting rivalry the malignant devil of militarism may be cast out, and that workers of the World shall, on the fields of sport, learn to know each other and so make it impossible to ever meet again on the field of battle' (Clarion 1928). In the same year, the Nazis gained a handful of seats in the Reichstag - eleven years later they were ready to smash those Clarion dreams. The movement went into decline after the Second World War, its demise accelerated by the increasing popularity of racing, the growth of new organisations attracting socialists and the private car boom. Today there are about twenty Clarion cycling clubs and annual meetings, including the Easter Meet, continue the social tradition. The centenary of the Clarion as a national movement was celebrated in 1995 at the Easter Meet in Buxton, with a weekend run to the site of the first national meet in Ashbourne. Some members are still active politically but the crusading zeal of the early Clarionettes is a thing of the past. Original Clarion members who can remember the golden era of cycling are few and far between. It is now up to the younger members to rekindle the spirit of those early years and if they can do that, then cycling will once again be truly “King of the Road”.