CTC Gazette, Vol 1922, No 5
Articles in this issue
- Reports that ex-Councillor W. F. Freeman received £700 damages after being run down near Bagshot, describes the AGM's near-unanimous backing of the Council's rear-lights policy under chairman W. G. Howard Gritten M.P., and critiques the Ministry of Transport's Departmental Committee report (signed by Sir Henry Maybury) for recommending only a brake on free-wheel cycles and an audible warning device.
- Reprints Mr. S. F. Edge's Automotor Journal article arguing that red reflecting discs are sufficient for cyclists and rear lamps are unnecessary, and that the most dangerous night-road hazards are a man in khaki without a collar and a flock of sheep on an open road.
- Round-up of D.A. news including a Metropolitan Hardriders' test on June 11th, 'Wayfarer's' lecture to nearly 200 in Edinburgh, the Liverpool D.A.'s Meriden pilgrimage leaving New Ferry on May 19th, the Birmingham and Midland D.A.'s '24' and ladies' '12' rides fixed for June 10-11, and a Bournemouth and Southampton paperchase from Totton to Brook in the New Forest.
- A gossip column recounting a John Bull 'Sticky Tenacious' patch surviving a puncture in Battersea Park, a South London member's letter on whether to withhold his vote over the rear-lights issue ('A Political Problem'), a reply quoting 'Kuklos' on cycling and democracy, and a note praising Rudge-Whitworth celluloid-covered 'Continental drop' handlebars.
- Details MPs' replies on compulsory rear lights: the Rev. A. J. Courtney of Ferryhill receives a Downing Street reply via Lloyd George's secretary, Labour members J. E. Swan (Barnard Castle) and B. C. Spoor (Bishop Auckland) oppose the measure, Colonel R. Burdon (Lewes) writes as a motorist, and Ernest Gardner (Windsor) declines to commit.
- By John Urry: an impressionistic account of the 'youthful vigour' and buoyant mood at the Club's AGM compared with more fractious past meetings, praising the District Associations' younger members; continues onto the next page describing Mr. A. Candler's rear-lights motion being laughed down and defeated with only three supporters.
- Signed H. J. Lewis: a fireside reverie weighing a night ride against staying home, daydreaming over Liverpool D.A. camp destinations (Tremeirchion, Bagillt, Brynteg, Prestatyn) and Yorkshire haunts (Harewood Park, Fountains Abbey, Malham, Rothbury), and urging readers to write to the Camping Club's Tours Secretary at 4, New Union Street.
- Compares Oxford's 'The High' with Cambridge's 'the Backs', describing the Backs of King's, Trinity, Clare, St John's and Queens' College and the Mathematical Bridge (attributed to Sir Isaac Newton), quotes Gray's 'Installation Ode', and continues onto the next page with Gonville and Caius College's Gate of Virtue.
- By A. W. Rumney: reports on South-West France prices (7-franc lunches), poor road repairs, route information obtained from M. Prevost of Bordeaux and the Office Francaise du Tourisme, and recommends the Lot, Celé, Dordogne and Vézère valleys and the prehistoric caves of Les Eyzies, reviewing guidebooks by Joanne, Baedeker and Baring Gould.
- Gives May lighting-up times for towns including London, Glasgow and Dublin, describes the 1859 Byzantine-style church at Gerrard's Cross by Sir William Tite and the ruined Eastbury House near Tarrant Hinton built for George Dodington; queries and replies cover touring the Highlands, Lyme Regis, the Dolomites, and a detailed Glasgow-to-Fort William route, plus A. W. Rumney's Pyrenees itinerary via the Col du Tourmalet.
- Miscellany including a Pedersen-type hammock saddle from the Stephenson Cantilever Cycle Co., Percy Brazendale's fund to buy 'Wayfarer' a replacement bicycle after his was stolen, a Crystal Palace cyclists' carnival on June 24th expecting 1,000 fancy-dress riders, and, continuing onto the next page, the Nottingham and Derby D.A. securing £32 damages for member W. M. Gilbert run down near Coventry and the Lady Cyclists' Rally fixed for May 28th.
- Obituary of Edwin Kite of Liverpool and Birkenhead, a cyclist since the 1870s-80s who organised Liverpool cycle parades and charity events, served on the CTC Council for Cheshire from 1908, and chaired the Hotels Committee until his death at the end of March.
- Reviews C. G. Harper's revised, re-illustrated edition of 'The Brighton Road', published by Cecil Palmer at 7s. 6d. (down from the original 16s.) with over 70 illustrations.
- Praises the Liverpool D.A.'s 1922 Handbook, edited by C. C. Hancock with Patterson drawings, a foreword and article by 'Wayfarer', and an essay on 'Comradeship' by P. Brazendale.
- Reviews the French-built Louvet touring bicycle sold by R. Bamford of South Kensington (introduced to England by S. M. Vanheems of the Bath Road Club), noting its acetylene-welded frame and reversible two-gear rear wheel after a 50-mile test ride, with the price just reduced from £17 to £15 15s.
- Letters column ('An Interchange of Opinions upon Current Topics') covering alloy steels for cycle construction, the derivation of the place-name Bettws-y-Coed, Councillor C. W. Cooke's 'driving challenge' offering to prove cyclists need no rear lights, a route from Hampshire to Sussex via Petersfield and Midhurst, the Thames tow-path cycling ban, the 'Summer Time' clock debate, and a 92-year-old member, A. Levien, renewing his membership.
- Minutes of the AGM at the Royal Society of Arts, Adelphi, on April 7th 1922 chaired by W. G. Howard Gritten M.P., reporting a swing from a £1,500 deficit in 1920 to a near-£400 profit in 1921, the defeat of Mr. A. Candler's compulsory rear-lights motion by all but three votes, and the near-unanimous passage of F. T. Bidlake's motion for a minimum forward-lighting standard.
- Council minutes from the April 7th-8th meetings recording a £20 grant to the Birmingham and Midland D.A., adoption of the Finance and Rights and Privileges Committee reports, a vote of sympathy for the late Edwin Kite, and a Northumberland and Durham D.A. special meeting called to elect a new hon. secretary after D. A. Kellett's resignation.
- Notes that 65 Birmingham and Midland D.A. members attended 'Wayfarer's' lecture in Worcester on March 25th, breaking the Victoria Institute's attendance record, describes Metropolitan D.A. members' plan to ride to the Meriden Rally via Barnet Church, and reports a Bolton century run to Burton-in-Kendal fixed for May 13th.
- Detailed May-June fixture lists for District Association sections nationwide, including the Whitsun pilgrimage to Meriden (May 20th-21st), the Leicestershire and Rutland sections' joint Cambridge week-end run, and the Yorkshire (West Riding) D.A.'s planned 200-mile 24-hour ride on July 15th-16th.