Ordinary bikes? These machines were far from it
SEVEN members of the Gloucester Bicycle Club posed at the Spa with their penny farthings for the photograph you see here, which was taken in about 1880.
The correct name for a penny farthing, by the way, is an ordinary bicycle. These came into fashion in about 1870 and boasted a front wheel some five feet in diameter, followed by a rear wheel of 12 inches.
Safety bicycles with two wheels of the same size arrived in 1885.
Before the bike there was the trike and the Gloucester Tricycle Club attracted a large and loyal following. Club members had their own uniform of dark jacket and school-type cap with a badge over the peak.
The Tricycle Club’s HQ, like that of the Bicycle Club, was the Spa pump room, which until it was demolished in 1960 stood in Spa Road.
A number of Gloucester firms manufactured bicycles. Perhaps the most successful was A C Stretton.
Established in 1895 the firm had its factory, showroom and offices in Worcester Street and to announce its business, Stretton’s displayed a penny farthing on the roof.
Stretton’s made bicycles with such brand names as the Eagle (not to be confused with Coventry Eagle, a well known cycle maker of more recent times) Champion, Million and Golden Sunbeam.
At the turn of the century a Stretton built Eagle bike would have set you back £8/10/0 (£8.50). This was a tidy sum. To put it into context, at the time the average wage was less than £2 per week. A skilled man took home about £1.90, a shop assistant cleared £1 and a farm labourer around 90p.
Domestic servants earned up to £30 per year as a cook, £20 as a housemaid and £8 as a general servant. A bank clerk’s salary was around £135 per year and a teacher’s £200. At this time a five bedroomed villa near the railway station with gas, water and a garden was offered for rent at £20 per annum.
A four bedroomed house in the city could be bought for £650.
The first bicycle seen in Cheltenham was ridden by Martin Rucker, a pupil at the boys’ college, in 1868. Then in 1894 the town hosted a 100 mile cycle race, which ran from the Norwood Arms in Bath Road, to Gloucester, Worcester, Evesham, back to Cheltenham via Marle Hill to finish at the town’s football ground. The winner’s prize was a silver cup, valued at seven guineas.
The Gloucester cycle maker A C Stretton also had a branch in Cheltenham’s Bath Road, but other notable town bike makers of late Victorian times included Birchley & Foreshaw of Henrietta Street, J E Smith in Bath Road and F W Hughes of Montpellier Arcade.
Alfred Miles was another, who established his firm’s name as a maker of high class carriages, but the business began in bicycle manufacture. The story goes that Alf Miles’ great local rival in bike building was named Davies.
These two vied with one another for supremacy, so a contest was arranged in which each rode a bicycle of his own making in a race between Cheltenham and Gloucester.
The showdown came in 1868. Miles and Davies sat astride buttock numbing bone shakers with wooden frames and iron tyres, the starting flag fell and off they scuttled.
There was, of course, no Golden Valley by-pass in 1868, in fact there was no metalled road at all. So imagine what hardy types the two were to struggle the seven mile course in two hours, at the end of which they agreed to call the match a draw. And presumably had to stand up for a day or two afterwards.
Shoppers in Cheltenham may recall that there used to be a locally made boneshaker on display on the gallery floor of the Regent Arcade at the High Street entrance end.
Cycling mania swept the country, broadening the horizons of ordinary people and bringing a sense of independence and freedom.
The craze affected all echelons of society. Even the austere Miss Dorothea Beale, Principal of Cheltenham Ladies’ College, took lessons in bicycling at the age of 67.
Cycling changed fashion, especially for women. The sport demanded less restricting clothes, so sleeves and skirts became shorter, hats smaller and soon the bloomer suit was the thing for women cyclists to be seen in.
This daring two piece was introduced by Amelia Bloomer, the American social reformer.
In Tewkesbury, an enterprising entrepreneur named Palmiro Barsanti cashed in on cyclemania by offering accommodation to passing pedallers.
An Italian emigrant, Barsanti’s eating house and bicyclers’ hotel stood in Church Street, where Abbey Cottages now stand.
The peak of chic in Edwardian Tewkesbury was afternoon tea in Barsanti’s Italianate garden.
Tea sippers sat in this haven of home made ice cream to the rear of the restaurant surrounded by classical statues, ornamental pagodas and trellised arcades.
During the 1940s, the Barsanti family also ran a town centre shop. Palmiro now resides in Tewkesbury cemetery.