On the road, 120 years ago

Commuting, Day rides, Audax, Incidents, etc.
Mike Sales
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Joined: 7 Mar 2009, 3:31pm

Re: On the road, 120 years ago

Post by Mike Sales »

Jon Lucas wrote:
The thing I found most fascinating about Harper's book was that he was writing right at the beginning of the 20th century, and was already describing the roads as being dominated by motor-cars. My image has always been that real dominance didn't occur until much later (I grew up in the 50s and roads were far less dominated by cars then than they are now). I wonder just how many cars were being driven around in those days, and whether Harper's reactions were because he remembered the roads before any cars drove around at all, so were free of their noise and pollution.
He was not the only one. The road to our present motor hell has been long and gradual, each deterioration accepted as the way things are by each generation.
Men of England
Your birthright is being taken from you by reckless motor drivers...Reckless
motorists drive over and kill your children...Reckless motorists drive over and
kill both men and women. Men of England...riseup, join together, and bring
pressure upon your representatives in Parliament, and otherwise make it
unpleasant and costly to the tyrants who endanger your lives and the lives of
your dear ones.
Poster circulated in London,1908.
Quoted in Death on the Streets by Robert Davis.
Last edited by Mike Sales on 14 Aug 2022, 11:04am, edited 1 time in total.
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
Nearholmer
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Joined: 26 Mar 2022, 7:13am

Re: On the road, 120 years ago

Post by Nearholmer »

I wonder just how many cars were being driven around in those days, and whether Harper's reactions were because he remembered the roads before any cars drove around at all, so were free of their noise and pollution.
Hundreds of motor vehicles in Britain c1900, and somewhere about 130 to 150 thousand by the outbreak of WW1, not evenly spread, so more in and around towns (including taxicabs and delivery vans in big cities), still barely any in the country.

My father used to regale us with stories of how he could still walk “straight down the middle of the road” the seven or eight miles along the A road into the next big town, seeing maybe one car or motor lorry in the process, in the late 1930s, and when I regularly cycled it in the 1970s it still wasn’t the complete nightmare of speeding traffic that it is now.

In 1950 about 1:20 households had a car, by the early 1970s 1:2, then it continued to rise, and the multi-car household became quite common, until saturation sometime c1995 I think. Parallel that with commercial motor traffic also shooting up, and the massive increase in speed of traffic, and one can probably say that although the Edwardians who remember the time befor motor cars felt the change keenly, the motor take-over of roads has really happened since the 1950s.
rjb
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Joined: 11 Jan 2007, 10:25am
Location: Somerset (originally 60/70's Plymouth)

Re: On the road, 120 years ago

Post by rjb »

rjb wrote: 12 Aug 2022, 7:55pm
Jon Lucas wrote: 12 Aug 2022, 8:29am I have dipped into several books by Charles G. Harper over the years, and have just read one right through, his treatise of the Somerset Coast, published in 1909. He wrote many Road books describing the old main routes across Britain at the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries, and also wrote a lot of books about specific parts of England, especially the south-west. As far as I can tell, his main (perhaps only) means of travel was by bike, and he certainly didn't approve of the increasing dominance of roads by motorists that he was witnessing at the time.

His writing style is obviously very old fashioned, and can be very annoying, not to mention straying over the line of what would now be seen as culturally acceptable. But amidst that, they are usually fascinating reads, and give a perspective of a time now lost.

I came across this piece in his description of Minehead, which I found fascinating. At that time, it was just beginning to be developed into a seaside resort, having been up to that time a small fishing village and port.

"Among other up-to-date doings is the covering of the roads with asphalte, so that visitant motor-cars shall not stir up the dust; the result being that the roads so treated have an evilly dirty appearance and a worse stink. They look, and probably are, dangerous to health."
Thanks for posting this. I have just dipped into it and as I lived in Cannington for 30 odd years and cycled every road in the area I know it well and enjoyed the de dayscription of this neck of the woods.
It's available as a free eBook as it has been recognised as being significantly important.
"The Somerset Coast, by Charles G. Harper--A Project Gutenberg eBook" https://www.gutenberg.org/files/58934/5 ... 8934-h.htm
This shows how little has changed in 100 years. The Ford has gone but everything else remains. The parish council were talking about reinstating the ford so it could be back as it was all those years ago.
This was the A39 back in the day. Fortunately the bypass now does the heavy lifting.
Cannington.JPG
i140.jpg
And in the winter without the foliage
Image
At the last count:- Peugeot 531 pro, Dawes Discovery Tandem, Dawes Kingpin X3, Raleigh 20 stowaway, 1965 Moulton deluxe, Falcon K2 MTB dropped bar tourer, Rudge Bi frame folder, Longstaff trike conversion on a Giant XTC 840 :D
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pedalsheep
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Joined: 11 Aug 2009, 7:57pm

Re: On the road, 120 years ago

Post by pedalsheep »

'A Golden Age of Cycling' edited by Shaun Sewell is a print version of the cycling diaries of Charles James Pope covering 1922 -1932 and I found it fascinating. Detailed descriptions of his annual holiday tours mostly in the South West plus weekend rides and shorter tours. Prodigious mileages in all weather. The diaries were only ever intended for his own records but they read very well and give a great picture of cycling between the wars. Available as a hardback or Kindle version.

The 4 volumes of the diaries of Charlie Chadwick (one of the founders of the Rough Stuff Fellowship) cover a similar period with adventures mostly in Northern England and Wales. Available from the Veteran Cycle Club.
'Why cycling for joy is not the most popular pastime on earth is still a mystery to me.'
Frank J Urry, Salute to Cycling, 1956.
Barrowman
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Joined: 8 Jan 2022, 6:35pm

Re: On the road, 120 years ago

Post by Barrowman »

If you look closely at the quad picture the young lady has her feet on foot rests ,you can see Pedals a bit lower down, and the lad has his feet on the pedals with the foot rests above . And it is for 'freewheeling' on a fixed wheel machine as has been suggested . Your feet (and legs) are clear if the rotating cranks and pedals when they are on the rests.
I have foot rests on the forks on my Circa 1880 French Safety Machine (bike) which runs fixed wheel.
Stoneybatter
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Joined: 24 Jul 2022, 6:20pm

Re: On the road, 120 years ago

Post by Stoneybatter »

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Last edited by Stoneybatter on 20 Aug 2022, 1:14pm, edited 1 time in total.
Barrowman
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Joined: 8 Jan 2022, 6:35pm

Re: On the road, 120 years ago

Post by Barrowman »

I am something of a technophobe. If you pm me your e mail I can share a photo and (if you have the technology) post same.
rotavator
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Joined: 6 Jun 2016, 9:50pm
Location: North Wales

Re: On the road, 120 years ago

Post by rotavator »

There are some great sketches of old trikes and bikes in action around Merseyside in 1887 in this sketchbook diary. Well worth a look I think.

https://www.cyclingnorthwales.uk/catego ... 887-diary/

https://www.cyclingnorthwales.co.uk/sketchbk/sk06.htm
Stoneybatter
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Joined: 24 Jul 2022, 6:20pm

Re: On the road, 120 years ago

Post by Stoneybatter »

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Last edited by Stoneybatter on 20 Aug 2022, 1:13pm, edited 1 time in total.
Bmblbzzz
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Joined: 18 May 2012, 7:56pm
Location: From here to there.

Re: On the road, 120 years ago

Post by Bmblbzzz »

I hope I wasn't the only one thinking "That's not a barrow".
Nearholmer
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Joined: 26 Mar 2022, 7:13am

Re: On the road, 120 years ago

Post by Nearholmer »

Superbe.

I hope it is one of those that was advertised in posters showing naked young women floating along by bike.
Stoneybatter
Posts: 43
Joined: 24 Jul 2022, 6:20pm

Re: On the road, 120 years ago

Post by Stoneybatter »

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Last edited by Stoneybatter on 20 Aug 2022, 1:13pm, edited 1 time in total.
Bmblbzzz
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Joined: 18 May 2012, 7:56pm
Location: From here to there.

Re: On the road, 120 years ago

Post by Bmblbzzz »

Replaceable handlebar grips and brake blocks which insert into carriers are, of course, still totally standard – even if the actual standards have changed! I expect even rubber pedal blocks are available somewhere.
Stoneybatter
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Joined: 24 Jul 2022, 6:20pm

Re: On the road, 120 years ago

Post by Stoneybatter »

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Last edited by Stoneybatter on 20 Aug 2022, 1:12pm, edited 1 time in total.
Nearholmer
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Joined: 26 Mar 2022, 7:13am

Re: On the road, 120 years ago

Post by Nearholmer »

Apparently, it had been invented years before, but cyclists for a long time after the invention of the ‘safety’ didn’t like it - I wonder if they were distrustful of any brake other than the force of their own legs.
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