Saturday 14 February 2009

Manchester Clarion Cycling Club 1894


Manchester Clarion Cycling Club

Clarion 12th 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 January 1895, 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
.
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In the Clarion 21 July 1894, "Swiftsure" suggested the Manchester Independent Labour Party (ILP) wheelers should change their name. 

It was a change that created the strongest and most active Clarion cycling club achieving a membership of 150 as early as 1895, and 300 by the end of 1897. As Clarion cycling burgeoned during the up to the end of the century, Lancashire and North Cheshire proved to be the key areas. 

 From the huge following in the Manchester district, to the Clarion cycling clubs in smaller towns such as Hyde, Farnworth, Horwich, Tyldesley, and Newton-le-Willows, a socialist cycling movement game meant months the working populations of the mill towns and the other industrial and commercial communities that lay in close proximity to the fresh air and freedom of some exhilarating open country.