CTC Gazette, Vol 1914, No 5
Articles in this issue
- The editor promotes the Club's new Organized Summer Tours to the Rhine, the Swiss Alps and Bruges arranged by the Foreign Touring Committee under Mr J. T. Masser, condemns road-widening and hedge-cutting done to suit motorists (citing a fatal airman's accident between Elstree and St Albans and a Watford Sessions case), and criticises cyclists who hang onto passing motor-cars for a free tow. It also notes the Inspector of Ancient Monuments' report, mentioning rabbit damage to Maiden Castle near Dorchester, and invites Edinburgh members to meet the Council and Secretary at the North British Station Hotel.
- By 'The Wanderer'. Reviews Tickner Edwardes' hitch-hiking travelogue Lift-Luck on Southern Roads, retelling his canary anecdote at an Amesbury inn and a hair-raising ride on a bicycle step with a cycling parson, then recounts the tale of 'The Artfulness of John Kilburn', who faked arrest to reach the Richmond races, and answers a reader's query about a Shakespeare quotation traced to John Jordan's Stratford writings.
- By F. T. Brake. Discusses record-breaking cyclist H. Green's use of a Pedersen bicycle on his London-to-York record (including a dramatic descent of Spittlegate Hill into Grantham), the author's own trial of a lightweight Pedersen, a correspondent's account of the Sager bevel-gear drive, a review of an all-weather Ariel bicycle, and a debate over wired inverted-lever brake fittings referencing member 'No. 6700' and the Raleigh company.
- Includes May lighting-up times, notes on Berlin nightlife and Belgian hotel customs and towns (Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent, Tournai), then members' Queries and Replies on touring Brittany, Normandy, the Loire and Savoy (Chamonix, Annecy, Argentière), a detailed account of a member's cycle tour through Mecklenburg and Rügen via the Argo steamer line, and Recommendations for lodgings in the Ardennes, Cornwall, Loch Lomond, Penzance and Warrington.
- By Captain Currye. Warns members of the cycle-stealing season and urges Club insurance, mocks the 'officer ordered abroad' bicycle-selling scam, praises M.P. Sir Fortescue Flannery for cycling to Westminster, quotes Percy Low on road-user unity, criticises a magistrate's 'no right or wrong side of the road' ruling in a Holmfirth case, congratulates the North Road Club on electing F. T. Bidlake president, and reports Easter accident fatalities including the death of a young man named Tyrrell at Lee.
- By C. Edwards. A touring narrative of a rain-soaked June ride from Ingleton through Burton-in-Lonsdale and Upper Bentham, over the wild moors of Bowland Forest to Slaidburn and the Hark to Bounty Inn, then through the Trough of Bowland past Lord Sefton's Abbeystead estate towards Lancaster, ending when a Lancashire farming family near Lee takes the soaked author in for the night after he is turned away elsewhere.
- By Alan R. Haig-Brown. Argues the bicycle is an excellent aid on shooting and fishing excursions, describing how game can be strapped with string to a carrier or handlebars, including a haul of 13 wild duck weighing about 50 lbs. and another mixed bag of a hare, six rabbits, five pheasants and a woodcock.
- By 'No. 6759'. Part one of a touring narrative from Dieppe through Rouen, Le Mans, Argenton-sur-Creuse and Aubusson, over a 2,800-foot ridge near the La Courtine military camp into the Auvergne, then down the Gorges of the Lot to the village of Conques and on to Rodez, ending at Millau ('To be concluded').
- By George Hogg. Describes a winter cycling tour through Oran province, Algeria, from Mascara through the village of Dublineau, where the author is mistaken for an escaped prisoner and lodged in a gendarmerie then a Café Maure among Arab travellers, continuing via Saida and Tlemcen to Benisaf on the coast.
- By Jno. Hingeley. A collection of curious inscriptions spotted on English buildings, including the 1543 Bridewell inscription at Aylsham, John Knox's house in Edinburgh, a free-bread sign at Broughton-in-Furness, the punning 'stone for asses' at Bebington near Birkenhead, a lightning-strike memorial in Packington Park, and the gunpowder-explosion inscription on Great Torrington church in Devon.
- A review of the Society's 1913 season of cycling rides to sites of antiquarian interest, including Yateley and Finchhampstead churches, Starborough Castle near Oxted, Ockham and West Horsley churches, Ockwells Manor near Bray (shown by Sir Edward Barry), and Smallfield Place, an Elizabethan house shown to members by Mrs Leslie Stephens.
- Describes the Klito Plate Pack and Developing Tank made by Houghtons Ltd, a device allowing touring photographers to change and develop glass plates in daylight without access to a dark room.
- By 'The Penwiper'. Recounts a paper-chase held by the Western Section of the Metropolitan District Association from Perivale Church through Greenford, Northolt, Eastcote and Ruislip in heavy rain and hail, finishing at the Hare and Hounds in Greenford, with riders later fording a flooded River Brent on the way home.
- By 'Wayfarer'. Reflects on why more C.T.C. members do not tour despite the Club's touring aims, describes an Easter Monday roadside vigil that disproved claims 'motoring is killing cycling', blames rider and driver carelessness rather than traffic itself for accidents, and relates a motor-cycle-and-sidecar mishap that a bystander mistook for a cinematograph stunt.
- Reprinted from The Autocar, by 'A Cyclist Who Is Also A Pioneer Motorist'. Argues motorists should show more consideration to cyclists, discusses proper use of horns and warning instruments, and singles out taxicab drivers as the worst offenders for close overtaking, backed by a two-year personal tally of dangerous passes broken down by vehicle type.
- Advertises the Club's Organized Summer Tours to the Rhine (from Bingen), the Swiss Alps (Ober-Rickenbach) and Bruges, lists new Handbook and Gazette-index prices, appeals for Chief Consuls in counties including Herefordshire and several Welsh, Scottish and Irish counties, sets out how the Rights and Privileges Committee helps members pursue road-accident claims, and gives C.T.C. insurance premiums for cyclists, auto-wheelists and motor-cyclists.
- By Douglas Leechman. Reviews new magneto-powered rear lighting devices (the Maglight, the Krisco, and a Westwood Rim Patents design), reports an American propeller-driven unicycle-motorcycle from Popular Mechanics, and continues the author's account of modifying his own motor-bicycle's frame, gearing, footbrake and Bosch magneto timing.
- Reader letters debate long cranks, camping with and without a tent (recommending the Amateur Camping Club), several members' experiences riding Dursley-Pedersen cycles, variable gears, brakes and saddles, C.T.C. steamer concessions on the Liverpool and North Wales route, Sampson repair plugs, roller-lever brakes, and a complaint that the Club's organised tours leave no scheduled cycling.
- Reports, committee minutes and runs programmes from District Associations including Bristol and Gloucestershire, Glasgow, Birmingham and Midland, Liverpool, Manchester, Metropolitan, Nottingham and Derby, Preston and North Lancashire, Sheffield, Southampton and Yorkshire (West Riding), plus a notice of a proposed new Lincolnshire association and the month's list of candidates for membership.