National Clarion Cycling Club 1895 ~ an association of Clarion Cycling Clubs
December 2022
“Mrs. McLintocks” and “Windy Hills” In December 2021 edition of The Clarion we asked if anyone had any information about the ‘lost’ Glasgow Clarion Hut that we ‘found’ close to the hamlet of Catacol on the Isle of Arran.
Below is a summary of a letter sent by one of the island’s residents who used to visit the camp in the 1950’s: ‘The hut was used to store equipment and for cooking meals using primus stoves. A large marquee was erected in the field for meals and communal activities. Each family had its own tent with duck boards placed on the ground to keep out the wet. Ditches were dug all-round the tent to help with drainage. The Clarion Camp was founded in 1910 by Tommy Woods to provide cheap holidays for around 100 people mainly from the Glasgow area. Often orphans were taken out of the big city for a holiday (was this possibly a Clarion Cinderella Club?). The camp was originally intended for cyclists, and although officially non-religious and non-political it was founded very much on Socialist and benevolent principles. The Dougarie Estate gave permission to use the field for the month of July every year. The entire family would come for the Glasgow Fair fortnight. Most people travelled via the Wemyss Bay-Lochranza ferry and were sometimes collected by horse and cart. The week before the camp, the Auxiliary Group would come to prepare the field. Digging the “Mrs McLintocks” (ladies latrines) and “Windy Hills” (gents’ latrines). Planks were laid across the latrines, with two seats next to each other, somewhat in the style of the Ancient Romans. The water supply came via a pipe rolled out every year from some way up the burn. A cook was
hired to do all the cooking, helped by campers on a rota who all took turns to do all the other tasks required. Food was generally plain and simple e.g. porridge, mince and tatties etc. A fire outside was kept going continuously to provide hot water. A pair of cymbals were clashed together to warn of mealtimes. Activities at the camp: although families often did their own thing, there were some regular, whole camp activities. There was always a day trip to Brodick and another to Campbeltown via the ferry from Lochranza. There was always a Sports Day which included a cross country ‘Marathon’ as well as a Concert with campers performing their party pieces. There were also frequent singsongs. Every day, much looked forward to by the children, the Tuckshop was open for one hour. Many people loved their time at the camp so much, they have their ashes scattered there.
There are some interesting comments on the Clarion Camp found on the internet: ‘My grampa Alan Archibald, a joiner by trade, helped to construct the wooden hut which is still there. The camps were for good old Socialists’. ‘Gran has told me about the pool at Catacol – they used to bathe in it.’
‘I spent several holidays at the camp in the 70’s. I guess I was too young for the politics; I remember one year there were Chilean refugees there’.
Bruce Urquhart from Helensburgh who as a child attended the Clarion Camp with his brother John in the 1950’s writes: ‘My knowledge of the camp and its history is through the eyes of a young child plus later conversations with my mother and grandparents. The first camp site was at Blackwaterfoot a village on Arran a few miles south of the later site at Catacol, established post 1918 with army surplus bell tents. At some point between the wars, they moved to Catacol. A founder member of the club was my grandfather David Lindsay a stalwart of the ILP. At some point they became the Clarion Camping Club. My mother started going to the camp in her teens before 1939 and then when the camp resumed after the war by which time she had married and had me. She became secretary of the Clarion Camping Club 1950 and organised all the camps for the next few years The camp was held each year during the 2 weeks of the Glasgow Fair holiday on the field rented from the Henry family, the local farmers who supplied the camp with milk, veg and large amounts of straw for the paliasses on which we slept I don't know when the hut was built but I do remember the roof being repaired during the 50s. The hut was used as a store for all of the camping equipment and as a cookhouse, the tents were large communal ones with wooden floors, though some families brought their own ones. There was a large marquee for meals and social activities. About 80 people of all ages attended.
The camp was very much Glasgow based with everyone arriving by one of the beautiful Clyde steamers sailing directly from the centre of Glasgow to Lochranza. Socialism was at the heart of the club, The families that I remember came from the ILP, the CP and the Socialist Sunday School Movement, but this was changing in the 50s with the influx of non-political families seeking a cheap holiday. We abandoned the camp at the end of the 50s when my father bought his first car, and we started touring holidays around Scotland. The camp became increasingly politicised later when it was largely taken over by The CP.
Glasgow Clarion Scouts campsite Shortly after that it closed, and the ownership of the hut was transferred to the Boy Scouts!!! I think that I must bring bikes, or a bike into this narrative. My father John Urquhart was a Londoner with a Scottish Highlands background. He joined the CP in London and rose to become number 3 in the Party hierarchy as National Secretary of the YCL He received much of his political education in Russia and spoke fluent Russian. A main part of his work was to travel the country, mainly the mining areas, spreading the word. He did most of this by fixed wheel bicycle’ (good man on both counts ed.) Why not plan a trip this summer to Arran, the island is ideal for a short 3 or 4 day tour. The roads are well surfaced and carry little traffic. A circuit of the isle makes a pleasant day’s ride as does the figure of eight route. A central road from east to west affords shorter north and south loops, both of which are well worth considering. It’s not too hilly but you do need some gears!
Easter Meet of Clarion Clubs Leicester 2023
National Clarion Cycling Club 1895 ‘Calls’ all Clarion cyclists to an Easter Meet in Leicester
(April 7th to April 10th)
A weekend of cycling, bounderising, comradeship and fun.
Meet Headquarters will be the Premier Inn Leicester City Centre.
MEET PROGRAMME GOOD FRIDAY: Assemble 1pm at Meet HQ. For ride to Bosworth Field. Assemble 5pm in Leicester Secular Hall, 75 Humberstone Gate for registration,
distribution of Meet Ribbons (courtesy of London Clarion) and free buffet.
THERE WILL BE NO MEET LEVY
EASTER SATURDAY: Assemble 10am at Meet HQ. For ride to the Foxton Inclined
Plane with longer option to St. Eleonor’s Cross at Geddington. Assemble 7pm at Meet HQ for tour of the five best pubs in the city.
EASTER SUNDAY: Assemble 10am at Meet HQ. For pork pie tasting ride to Melton Mowbray. On the return leg stopping at The White House public house to raise a glass to
General Thomas Cooper, leader of the Leicester Chartists. No evidence he ever rode a
velocipede but it’s a good excuse for a well-earned pint.
EASTER MONDAY: Assemble 10am at Meet HQ. Walking tour of city centre to sites related to three Leicester Clarion Cycle Club members: Amos Sherriff, bike shop owner
and first Labour Mayor of the Leicester. Alice Hawkins: Clarion cyclist and militant suffragette. Finally, we will pay homage to Clarion cyclist Roy Watts: killed in action, age
23, fighting the Fascist hordes during the Civil War in Spain. Optional visit to King Richard III tomb (entry fee). Followed by a farewell rendition of the Clarion anthem ‘England Arise’ in Duffy’s Bar.
THE CLARION AND SOCIALISM AN UNBROKEN LINK
Email: national.clarion1895@gmail.com
“My kingdom for a horse” On the morning of Saturday 22nd August 1485, Richard Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester and King of England decided to take a ride with his mates (and a massive Yorkist army) to Bosworth Field in Leicestershire. Here he planned to deal with Henry Tudor who had invaded his kingdom with a much smaller Lancastrian army. Unfortunately for King Richard, on the day, several of his key allies: Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, Lord Stanley and his brother William decided to switch sides or left the battlefield. Henry’s unexpected victory and Richard’s death effectively ended the Wars of the Roses.
General Thomas Cooper Thomas Cooper was born in Leicester in 1805. Apprenticed to a shoemaker he spent most of his free time on a programme of self-education which enabled him to become firstly a schoolteacher and later a journalist. In 1841 he became editor of a Chartist journal, The Midland Counties Illuminator, and a leading member of the Leicester Chartists. For his part in promoting rioting in the Potteries in 1842 he was jailed in Stafford for two years. It was during this time he wrote his epic poem, ‘The Purgatory of Suicides’. We will raise a glass to Thomas on Sunday’s ride to Melton Mowbray. Mayor Amos Sherriff
Amos Sherriff was born in one of the poorest slums in Leicester 1856, he never attended school as by the age of six he was already working in a brickyard. In 1876 age 20 he joined the Salvation Army where he learnt to read and write. He spent the next 17 years preaching on street corners, often in the face of hostile and violent crowds.
In 1905 determined to take the fight against unemployment and poverty to the government he organised The Leicester March of the Unemployed to London. He opened a cycle shop on Belgrave Road where people used to call in to discuss their problems and seek his advice. He became a central figure in the Leicester Clarion Cycling Club, his shop becoming a convenient outlet for distributing The Clarion newspaper. From his humble beginnings Amos rose to become one of the greatest public figure in the city being elected Lord Mayor in 1922, the first to represent the Labour Party. Alice Hawkins
Alice Hawkins was born in 1863, leaving school at thirteen she spent much of her early life working as a shoe machinist at Equity Shoes in Leicester. She became involved in the struggle to obtain the vote for women; firstly in the Leicestershire Women’s Suffrage Society and later as a member of the militant Women’s Social and Political Union. She went to prison five times for the militant actions she took. Alice, a member of the Clarion Cycling Club, was in 1902 accused of “outraging public decency” by riding in rational dress. In the summer of 1910, Alice and other suffragettes set out every Sunday morning to cycle to rural villages to hold open air meetings, distributed WSPU literature and solicited donations. During the 1911 general election the Leicester WSPU cyclists dressed in suffragette colours and rode over to Loughborough to distribute anti-Liberal pamphlets. The bicycle played a small but vital role in the Leicester WSPU’s fight for the women’s suffrage.
Roy Watts Roy Watts was a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain and Chairman of Leicester Clarion Cycling Club. He left his job as a salesman with the Co-op to join the International Brigade in their fight to aid the Spanish Republican Government during the Civil War in Spain. He was killed in action close to Gandesa during the Ebro offensive on 25th September 1938 age 23. He wrote: “I am happy and proud to place my service with the workers of Spain in their heroic fight against the bestialities of Fascism; we have nothing in common with the outlook of Fascists who glorify death as their ideal”.
“Pedalling Days” Extracts from an article that appeared in
The Clarion by Sylvia Pankhurst
I was fourteen years of age and my sister, Christabel two years older, when we joined the Manchester Clarion Cycling Club. For the next two years we rode with the club almost every Sunday. We had a host of friends in the club. Haylock, the Captain, and almost every member of the club helped me at some time or other in mending my punctures, I was fearfully unlucky in that respect and in pushing me up the last bit of the steepest hills. As the youngest member of the club, I doubtless got special consideration, but everyone was kind to everyone in that genial company. The “Clarionettes,” as they called themselves, were merry people; their joyous cries of “Boots!” and “Spurs!” rang through the country lanes. Socialists, as a rule, were very keen and strenuous in those days, and the road to Socialism seemed by no means so long and difficult as it appears to-day, and most of the comrades, even the oldest, confidently expected to reach it in their own lifetime. The ”Clarionettes” were much criticised by the I.L.P.’ers and the B.S.P.’ers for not being sufficiently active and serious in Socialist work. I have often heard the cyclists reply by telling of the good work they had done in the past in sticking little red gummed labels with appropriate mottoes on trees and fences wherever they rode. This activity was before my time, and I wished they would revert to it, being myself of strenuous mind. (They
certainly won’t want her kind in the On-Bike Social Networking Club ed.) Yet, though they did little direct propaganda, the Clarion people carried a leaven of Socialist conversation and argument into the rural districts then wholly untouched by any Socialist or Labour propaganda. A copy or two of the Clarion, and perhaps some other literature, would generally be left behind. Week in, week out, the clubs took hundreds of people of all ages away from the grime and ugliness of the manufacturing districts to the green loveliness of the country, giving them fresh air, exercise and good fellowship at a minimum of cost. The clubs promoted a frank, friendly comradeship amongst men and women, then very much less common than it is to-day.
One of the great events of those days was the camp in at Pickmere in Cheshire, where Clarion people and other Socialists spent a summer holiday in tents and maintained relays of “Cinderella children” from the slums of Manchester and Salford. It was pleasant when the campers sat on the grass in the evening taking turns to talk and tell tales. I remember old Mr Wadsworth telling us that as a young lad in dreary Salford he had become a Socialist through studying butterflies; the loveliness of the insects had bred in him a desire for beauty also in the human world. The Handforth Clarion Clubhouse was an ambitious undertaking, father bought us all shares, but we ceased to ride before it was established. (The Clarion Vol 3 No 3 Feb 1931)
The bicycle cape
Eaton Socon, a small “Domesday village” was, until 1965 in Bedfordshire then some nameless bureaucrat “moved” it into Cambridgeshire. The village which straggles the Great North Road is well worth a visit if you happen to be cycling in the region as it has not one, but two blue plaques to mark the historical importance of cycling in the village.
One is to be found at Hobbit Cottage on the Great North Road, which was used by the North Road Cycling Club in the late 1800s as a stop-off point on rides between London and York. The North Road Cycling Club was founded in 1885 to 'Promote fast and long-distance cycling on the Great North and other Roads'. The North Road Club was in the van of continental road racing when in May 1891 four members went to France to compete in the first Bordeaux-Paris to "show the Frenchmen how to ride". They were brilliantly successful, taking the first three places. The North Road Gazette founded in 1903 has been published monthly without a break ever since and chronicles the Clubs life and members exploits.
The second plaque is at 28, Ackermann Street, the former home and workshop of John Cecil Paget. Paget, a member of the North Road Club is credited with being the inventor of the wet weather cycling cape.
Do you own a cycle cape? Probably not, but from the early 1930’s right through until the late 1960’s, virtually every cyclist would have carried one either in their saddlebag or more correctly secured to the top of it with a couple of leather straps. Your usually bright yellow coloured cape was almost as essential as your puncture repair kit and bike pump. Capes go back to the earliest days of cycling and were modelled on the leather capes worn by horse riders. The best thing about capes is that being especially made for cycling they give you full weather protection from head to thigh. On the downside: early capes were heavy and rarely breathable so the sweat generated could not escape turning the cape into a mobile sauna. Also cycling in a cape, especially with handlebar loops, made it virtually impossible to given hand-signals in traffic and they could be very problematic in the wind as it was a bit like riding in a giant tent.
In the early 1930’s Eaton cyclist and North Road Club members John Cecil Paget is credited with being the first person to apply oilskin to a cycle cape. His ‘top of the range’ cape was made from silk covered in oilskin. It had the benefit of being very light to the delight of cyclists. In the post-war years oilskin was phased out and replaced with nylon or PVC.
FORTHCOMING EVENTS:
One person Magic Lantern show of the The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists adapted by Neil Gore from the book by Robert Tressell directed by Louise Townsend. Neil Gore, presents a one-person version of the classic novel by Robert Tressell featuring projection, political conjuring tricks, live music and song. Meet the famous characters and enjoy the scenes, speeches and songs, featuring the Great Money Trick as its centrepiece. This play by Townsend Productions is an absolute not-to-be-missed event for all Clarion cyclists, their families, and friends. Were every child in the land to receive a copy of Tressell’s book for Christmas the Tories, along with Starmer and his treacherous ilk, would soon be consigned to the dustbin of history. Check out the dates of this national tour on: townsendproductions.org.uk YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.
March 19th
CYCLE JUMBLE From 9am to 1pm. To be held at
OAKHILL COLLEGE,
Wiswell Lane, Whalley. BB7 9AF Indoor stalls £5 (tables provided) Outdoor pitches £5 ~ bring your own table.
Admission by voluntary donation
No queuing, no early bird fees Refreshments and large free car park on site. Contact: Charles Jepson 01254 51302 (just 5 digits)
Email: clarioncc@yahoo.co.uk April 7th /10th Clarion Annual Easter Meet in Leicester June 4th Socialist Sunday School Whit Walk from the Socialist Institute, Vernon Street in Nelson to the ILP Clarion House. Assemble 10.30am for 11am start. 3 mile walk suitable for all the family. Bring a picnic. June 11th Clarion Sunday at Nelson ILP Clarion House, Jinney Lane, Newchurch in Pendle BB12 9LL, Annual Mass gathering for all Clarion cyclists and supporters. June 22nd/26thAnnual Dieppe Cycle Raid for further details of the Clarion’s presence at this fantastic weekend event of cycling and bounderising contact: Alex Southern of London Clarion at: (alex.southern.as@gmail.com) June 23rd/25th Annual York Cycle Rally For camp site booking and further information see: yorkrally.org.
In Memory It is with great sorrow one must record the tragic passing of Comrade Mick O’Rorke of London Clarion., Mick aged 71, was a true Clarionite who gave pleasure to all who shared his company riding the lanes and byways. True to the Club’s Socialist tradition Mick was always pleased to greet strangers and proud to call them friends. Mick died of his injuries following a road traffic incident involving a van near Bintree in Norfolk whilst out cycling with the Collar and Tie Club on Friday, 9th September.
Robert Tressell wrote his inspirational novel in Hastings shortly before his death in 1911. At that time the economy of the day was in recession; unemployment was rising and corruption was rife amongst the political classes. (All of which sounds rather familiar ed). Sadly, there is no evidence that Tressell was ever a Clarion member, though as the photo shows he did ride a bike and in his book he writes movingly of the hope the coming of the Clarion Van will bring to the oppressed masses.