History
The Origins of the Clarion Cycling Club and cycling in the 1890s
27. We move into 1895 with a meeting to form the Manchester club announced and a message from the Potteries by 'Clincher'
Along with the advertisement he refers to, the following appeared in Swiftsure's 'Cycling Notes' on 12 January 1895.
I desire to call to the attention of Manchester and District Cycling 'Clarionettes' to the advertisement on page 4 calling a meeting for all who are interested in joining a strong Clarion Cycling Club in Manchester. The meeting will be held at the Labour Church Institute, 3 St John's Parade, Deansgate, Manchester on Wednesday evening next, the 16th, at 8 p m. Ladies are especially invited; and political differences will be no bar to membership, providing they are only readers and believers in the Clarion and its good work. En avant! Mes Camarades, come join the Clarion crew.
The following week – 19 January 1895 – this appeared in the 'Notes'
I must make room for the following from the Potteries Clarion C.C., by which will be seen that they don't intend to be the last of the Clarion C.Cs in energy and strength
Dear Swiftsure,
Will you allow me to remind your readers that the Potteries Clarion C.C. is still alive although we have done but little cycling of late. We intend to hold our annual general meeting early in February to which all cyclists and friends of the movement are invited. Despite the secession of one or two of the scorching fraternity who go to join a racing club, we hope to have a better club this year than last. We hope, also, to have more of the esprit de corps of our Birmingham comrades, and as we shall be doing business at the old stall, so to speak, we shall be glad to welcome new recruits.
If the cycling season is as propitious as the political world promises to be eventful*, we shall have a jolly time, With greetings to al our comrades, and with the hope that we may soon meet again on our 'bikes', I am impatiently yours
CLINCHER
* This is possibly a reference to the likelihood of a general election in 1895. Hopes were high in the ILP that their candidates would do well. But this was not to be and Keir Hardie, who had won a parliamentary seat the year before the ILP was formed was to lose it in 1895.
Next time. The Manchester Clarion CC is formed