Bacon's Up-to-Date Cycling Pocket Road-Book of England and Wales

Published by G. W. Bacon & Co.189713 chapters35 images

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Contents

• Introduction (opens in a new tab)

  The compiler explains that the book admits only matter of service to the cyclist and avoids useless repetition, warns that the "left" and "right" given for side and cross roads reverse on the return journey, and points to the lists of hotels, cycle repairers and cross routes as its new features. Being a first issue, the publishers invite corrections for future editions.
• List of Cycle Manufacturers, Repairers & Agents in Various Towns Alphabetically Arranged (opens in a new tab)

  Trade directory of makers, repairers and agents town by town with street addresses, running from Aberystwith (Connah & Rowland, Pier St.) and Alderley Edge through Bournemouth, Brighton, Bristol, Guildford, Liverpool, Oxford, Southampton and Southport to Tring, Windsor and Worcester. C.T.C.-appointed houses are marked, and several refer the reader to their advertisement at the end of the book.
• Alphabetical List of Routes from London (opens in a new tab)

  Destination index to the London radial routes of Sections I and II, from Aberystwith, Aldeburgh and Arundel through Bath, Birmingham, Blackpool by Preston, Brighton, Edinburgh by Carlisle, Great Yarmouth, Holyhead and Ilfracombe to Swansea, Torquay, Weymouth and beyond, each with its printed page.
• Alphabetical List of Cross Roads (opens in a new tab)

  From-and-to index to the cross-country routes, opening with Aberdaron to Great Grimsby (by Oswestry, Macclesfield and Sheffield) and Aberystwith to Cambridge, Cardiff, Gloucester, Milford and Swansea, and running through Bath, Brighton, Hull, Liverpool, Manchester, Norwich, Plymouth, Southport and Winchester to Worcester; bracketed notes give the intermediate towns.
• Railway Rates (opens in a new tab)

  Table of charges for conveying cycles at owner's risk on the principal English lines and their branches, by mileage bands of 12 to over 100 miles, both with a passenger and as parcels, with separate bicycle and tricycle scales; tandems are noted as costing about 50 per cent more.
• The Mile (opens in a new tab)

  Note on distance measures: the English statute mile of 8 furlongs, 80 chains, 320 rods, 1,760 yards and 5,280 feet, with the conversions for the Irish mile (eleven equal fourteen statute) and the Scotch mile (ten equal 11¼ statute).
• Lighting-Up Table (opens in a new tab)

  Lamp-lighting times for every Saturday of 1897, tabulated month by month from January (5.1 to 5.44) through the June/July late evenings to December (4.51 to 4.56).
• Cycling Route-Map of England and Wales (opens in a new tab)

  Two-sheet folding route map showing the principal routes mentioned in the book: the north sheet runs from Berwick, Alnwick and Newcastle down through Carlisle, York, Manchester, Sheffield and Lincoln, and the south sheet covers Wales, the Midlands, London, East Anglia and the south-west as far as Land's End.
• Section I. Direct Routes South of London (opens in a new tab)

  Routes 1-37, the direct roads running south and south-west out of London: to Arundel and Littlehampton, Brighton, Eastbourne, Hastings, Dover, Ramsgate, Portsmouth, Southampton, Bournemouth, Weymouth, Exeter, Plymouth and Land's End. Each route is tabulated with cumulative mileages, intermediate villages, recommended hotels and notes on surface and gradient.
• Section II. Direct Routes North of London (opens in a new tab)

  Routes 38 to 94: the roads north and west out of London, including Aberystwith by Oxford and Rhayader, Ipswich, Bath by Marlborough and Chippenham, Birmingham by Henley-in-Arden, Bristol by Bath, Chester by St Albans and Dunstable, Colchester and Ipswich, Edinburgh by Jedburgh, Whitby by York and Pickering, Wisbech by Cambridge, and York and Northallerton.
• [Section III. Cross Roads] (opens in a new tab)

  The book's largest run of tables (routes 95 to 387, printed pp.43-175), carrying no printed heading in the body but listed on the contents page as Section 3, Cross Roads: provincial town-to-town routes beginning Aberdaron to Great Grimsby by Oswestry, Macclesfield and Sheffield and Aberystwith to Cambridge by Birmingham, then working alphabetically through Bath, Coventry, Great Yarmouth, Hull, Liverpool, Manchester, Norwich, Peterborough and Winchester.
• Section IV. Routes in Isle of Wight (opens in a new tab)

  An alphabetical from-and-to index of island routes followed by the tables themselves (routes 388 to 415): East Cowes to Bembridge, Brading, Newchurch and Sandown, Ryde by Binstead or Haven Street, St Helens, Shanklin and Ventnor; Newport to Freshwater Bay, Shorwell, West Cowes and Yarmouth; and Yarmouth to Ryde by Shorwell and Shanklin.
• Section V. Routes in Isle of Man (opens in a new tab)

  Routes 416 to 424 covering the Manx roads: Castletown to Kirkmichael by Ballacraine, Douglas to Peel, Port Erin and Ramsey, Peel to Castletown and to Port St Mary by Glen Meay and Dalby, and three alternatives from Ramsey to Peel by Bride, Andreas and Sulby.