CTC Gazette, Vol 1914, No 10
Articles in this issue
- Under the heading 'The Cyclist's Talisman', the editorial describes how C.T.C. Foreign Customs Tickets saved English tourists from arrest as spies at the outbreak of war, quoting a letter from an Irish priest twice hauled before a Bavarian military tribunal near Munich and a Barrow-in-Furness member's thanks; it also notes the War Office is not currently accepting further cyclist volunteers and advertises Bartholomew's War Map of Central Europe.
- A reflective essay, signed 'Twenluck', arguing that solitary cycling at dusk along quiet hedgerowed lanes is in fact highly conducive to reverie, and praising the bicycle over golf, cricket or tennis as a cheap, unencumbered escape from workaday worries.
- Includes lighting-up time and moon-phase tables, an account of a 1,750-mile motor-cycle tour from Middlesbrough through the Lake District, North Wales and Land's End to the south coast, a member's ('No. 6619') Austrian Tyrol tour over the Arlberg, Stelvio and Bernina passes cut short by the outbreak of war, a weekend cycle trip from St Albans into rural Essex (Hatfield, Bishop's Stortford, Thaxted, Great and Little Bardfield) signed 'A. H.-S.', and hotel recommendations for Ludlow, Cheltenham, Bettws-y-Coed, Ilfracombe, Killarney and Chester.
- Concluding instalment of a touring narrative through the Rhone valley and the Midi, covering Carcassonne's fortified Cite, Narbonne, Montpellier, the flooded Camargue, Aigues-Mortes, the Roman amphitheatre at Arles, Nimes and the Pont du Gard aqueduct, ending at the Palace of the Popes in Avignon and the Roman theatre at Orange.
- By G. M. Green, M.Sc.: subtitled 'From Bordeaux to Havre During the Mobilisations', an account of a Pyrenees-bound tour disrupted by French general mobilisation - sailing from Liverpool to Bordeaux, finding all trains commandeered, queuing twelve hours for passports, and cycling north through Angouleme, Poitiers and Loudun (where he was suspected of bridge sabotage and cross-examined by the local Procureur) before reaching Havre just as a British troopship arrived.
- By 'The Wanderer': reminiscences of touring the Great North Road, including a disappointing breakfast stop at Stilton's 'Bell' and 'Angel' inns, a visit to Norman Cross (site of a Napoleonic-era prisoner-of-war depot), notes on Welwyn's 'Cowper Arms' hotel, Eaton Socon's link to Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby, and the 1471 Battle of Barnet commemorated near Hadley Church.
- An instructional series explaining how cyclists can identify church architecture encountered while touring, covering the introductory case for the study plus the distinguishing columns, arches, windows and towers of the Saxon and Norman periods, continuing into the Early English and Decorated periods; marked '(To be concluded.)'.
- A two-page photographic feature with captioned views near Paris, including the Bois de Boulogne, Suresnes and Mont-Valerien, the bridge and park at St-Cloud, Versailles (the Grand Trianon and the Hameau de Marie-Antoinette), Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the Bois de Vincennes, the River Marne, the Foret de l'Isle-Adam and a Franco-German War monument.
- Minutes of the Council's September 1914 meeting at Bath, chaired by A. W. Trevarthen, covering illumination of motor number plates, the resignation of Sussex Chief Consul R. M. Loy, opposition to the Walsall, Reading and Middlesex County Council (Western Road) tramway and traffic bills, and the decision to suspend the Club's cyclist national-service scheme following War Office instructions while keeping registers of volunteers open.
- Members' letters on technical and touring topics, including cushion tyres, spring forks and spring handlebars for absorbing road vibration, improved bell positioning, unreliable oil and electric cycle lamps, a proposed flashing rear light, pedal-spindle screw threads, a near-collision with a motor car ('Twixt Scylla and Charybdis'), Chas. A. Hopkinson's objection to the R.I.A.'s Croydon Relief Road scheme, and R. J. Mecredy's reply on the Connemara custom of dressing young boys in girls' clothing.
- Notice of the Annual Election of Councillors for 1915 with the schedule of seats required by division, the list of Chief Consuls returned unopposed for 1915 across England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and abroad, and calls for volunteer local Consuls in Oxfordshire, Lincolnshire, Wiltshire, Kent, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Somerset and Hampshire.
- Reports from local District Associations on wartime activity and autumn runs, including Glasgow's and Liverpool's registration of cyclists for Home Defence, Manchester members joining the Manchester Athletes' Volunteer Force, the Metropolitan D.A.'s scheme for a cyclist corps, and club runs listed for the Western, Eastern, Nottingham & Derby, Sheffield and Southampton sections plus a proposed new association for Lincolnshire.