It’s an enormous summer time for biking in Scotland! June sees us have fun the one centesimal Bike Week, earlier than the most effective riders on the earth convene in Glasgow this August.
To get us within the temper, we’ve used the Historic Atmosphere Scotland archives to make a journey down reminiscence (cycle) lane. So, historical past helmets on! Let’s pedal into the previous…
A biking membership within the Borders – presumably Hawick, Jed-Forest or Kelso – photographed in 1878. (© Untraceable; photos property of Scottish Borders Council Museum Service. Licensed by way of Scran) Our cowl picture was taken at a cycle rally in Falkirk in 1910. (© Falkirk Museums. Licensed by way of Scran)
A brand new craze
When eager about the historical past of biking, you could properly think about climbing onto a daunting-looking “abnormal” (or “Penny Farthing”) or wince on the considered a journey on a “boneshaker”.
Scottish innovators had been concerned within the improvement of early bicycles. Kirkpatrick Macmillan, a blacksmith from Dumfries and Galloway, is believed to have invented one of many first pedal pushed bicycles as early as 1839. Kilmarnock cartwright and inventor Thomas McCall constructed two variations of a “velocipede” within the 1860s.
The son of Scottish inventor John Boyd Dunlop on the primary bicycle to have pneumatic tyres (© Hulton Getty. Licensed by way of Scran)
However biking as a well-liked pursuit actually took off with the event of the “security bicycle” within the mid-Eighties. Comparable in look to the bikes we use in the present day, they had been cheaper, comfier and extra dependable than what had come earlier than.
One other pioneering Scot performed an instrumental function in guaranteeing that consolation. After he changed the stable tyres on his youngster’s tricycle with an inflated rubber hose, John Boyd Dunlop developed and patented the pneumatic tyre. In 1889, he established an organization producing bicycle tyres.
In the meantime, cycle works sprung up in cities throughout Scotland as producers sought to capitalise on a craze which might final proper up till the rise of the motor automobile.
The Woolston Cycle Works in Bathgate, in round 1905. Seven males had been employed by proprietor Andrew Thomson Campbell. In addition to repairing bicycles, Campbell’s staff made their very own, known as known as “the Woolstown”. (© West Lothian Council Libraries. Licensed by way of Scran)
The MacDonald’s of Dalkeith additionally made their very own bicycles of their store on Buccleuch Avenue. This {photograph} is from a while within the Twenties. Mr MacDonald additionally labored as a part-time postman and is presumably carrying his postman’s hat. (© Nationwide Museums Scotland. Licensed by way of Scran)
Be part of the membership
Many like-minded cyclists organised themselves into golf equipment, arranging rallies, outings and holidays. There’s a wealth of pictures in our archives, exhibiting biking golf equipment proudly posing with their bikes.
Members of the Cupar Biking Membership in Fife pose for {a photograph} within the early 1900s. (© Nationwide Museums Scotland. Licensed by way of Scran)
Whereas some present teams, just like the Cupar Biking Membership, which are clearly fairly well-off, from the late-1800s onwards we will see extra working folks leaping into the saddle.
The increase within the manufacturing of security bicycles got here at a time when working folks had been starting to take pleasure in extra leisure time. Not solely was a bicycle a helpful technique of attending to and from work, on days off it was a supply of pleasure and journey.
The Stepps Biking Membership on an outing to the Campsie Fells in about 1900. The membership was one in all a number of native organisations fashioned as a neighborhood started to develop round Glasgow’s first suburban railway station. (© East Dunbartonshire Council. Licensed by way of Scran)
John Hamilton, David Craig, Robert Shaw and John Shaw of the Coalburn Could Honest Biking Membership pose with their bicycles round 1900. This was the Lanarkshire village’s first biking membership. (© South Lanarkshire Libraries. Licensed by way of Scran)
Pedals and politics
In 1894, the inspiration of the Clarion Biking Membership added a political factor. It used biking to advertise socialist propaganda and by its peak within the Nineteen Thirties had 233 branches and over 8,000 members, together with a quantity in Scotland.
The Paisley Clarion Cycle Membership embarking on a journey in 1909 (© Paisley Museum & Artwork Galleries, Renfrewshire Council. Licensed by way of Scran)
The Musselburgh Clarion Biking Membership members parading underneath their banner on the Sincere Lad and Lass Parade in 1938. The Musselburgh part of the Clarion Membership was based in 1930. (© The Metropolis of Edinburgh Council. Licensed by way of Scran).
A win for ladies
Whereas most of the earliest biking golf equipment had been organised by males for males, the bicycle craze of the Eighteen Nineties had a huge effect on the lives of girls.
A model of the protection bicycle with a drop body was launched, designed to accommodate ankle size skirts. Modified clothes, resembling bloomers and bicycle corsets, started to hit the market. Regardless of resistance to them collaborating in an “unsuitable” pursuit carrying “scandalous” outfits, ladies took to biking of their 1000’s.
The outcome was an unprecedented shift in ladies’s social mobility and sense of liberty. In addition to enabling extra unbiased journey than ever earlier than, the bicycle drove new concepts in politics, vogue and well being.
A postcard from 1900 exhibiting a gaggle of cyclists taking a break from their journey close to Newton Stewart, Dumfries and Galloway. The drop frames of their security bikes allowed ladies to affix the biking craze (© Whithorn Photographic Group. Licensed by way of Scran)
Cyclists pose for a photograph at Seacliff, close to North Berwick in September 1911. (© Mr RC Lloyd. Licensed by way of Scran)
Dressmaker and Sunday College instructor, Lizzie Colquhoun along with her bicycle in Kilmaurs, Ayrshire, 1910. (© Nationwide Museums Scotland. Licensed by way of Scran)
Able to race
From the earliest days of biking, folks have felt the urge to race. Within the archives, you’ll find a silver medal offered to a “Penny Farthing” racer in Birnam, Perthshire in 1879. A superbly engraved Problem Cup was offered to winners of races organised by the Easter Ross Biking Membership, Tain, by way of the Eighties.
Edinburgh Fort supplies a dramatic backdrop as starter and timekeeper verify all is so as earlier than a touring group go away the Capital, on 1 June 1954. (© The Scotsman Publications Ltd. Licensed by way of Scran)
Multi-stage races in Britain started in earnest with the Victory Biking Marathon, held to have fun the top of the conflict in 1945. Subsequent occasions had been often called “Milk Races”, because of sponsorship from Milk Advertising and marketing Boards. There have been a number of Scottish Milk Races, the place the mountains (and little question the climate!) offered an amazing problem for riders.
Norman Batty ascends the String Street on the Isle of Arran on his method to profitable a stage of the 1961 “Milk for Vitality Race” (© The Scotsman Publications Ltd. Licensed by way of Scran)
The “Milk for Vitality” race crosses the Forth Street Bridge in July 1961 (© The Scotsman Publications Ltd. Licensed vis Scran)
The necessity for pace
Within the metropolis, an altogether completely different sort of racing grew in recognition within the post-war years: cycle speedway. Impressed by motorbike speedway, this frantic and intense racing takes place on quick oval filth tracks. Many had been constructed on bombsites, providing younger folks an affordable type of leisure in war-damaged cities.
Whereas London led the way in which, information present Glasgow was house to one of many first cycle speedway leagues, fashioned in 1946. Internet archives recall many groups which as soon as raced in and round Edinburgh: Liberton Lions, Granton Griffins, Brunstane Bees, Portobello Eagles…
The Sighthill Hammers tackle the Meadowbank Stars in a cycle speedway race in Could 1960 (© The Scotsman Publications Ltd. Licensed by way of Scran)
Prepare for the World’s finest!
Between 3 and 13 August, the 2023 UCI Biking World Championships shall be going down in Scotland. From downhill mountain biking in Fort William to BMX Freestyle on Glasgow Inexperienced, you’ll be capable to see the world’s best riders compete throughout 7 disciplines.
Bruce Biddle of New Zealand narrowly beats Ray Bilney of Australia to the end line of the biking highway race in the course of the 1970 Commonwealth Video games in Holyrood Park, Edinburgh. The park will host the beginning of the highway races within the 2023 UCI Biking World Championships. (© The Scotsman Publications Ltd. Licensed by way of Scran)
Historic Scotland websites are set to offer a backdrop for 2 occasions. The highway races, operating between Edinburgh and Glasgow, will start in Holyrood Park, whereas the highway time trials will centre on town of Stirling and the long-lasting stronghold of Stirling Fort.
So, whilst you watch much more Scottish biking historical past being made this summer time, you’ll want to keep in mind the place all of it started.
Cyclists on the velodrome observe at Meadowbank Stadium in Edinburgh, Could 1981. (© The Scotsman Publications Ltd. Licensed by way of Scran)
See extra in our archives
The fantastic archive pictures used for this weblog are hosted on Scran. Our on-line service comprises over 400,000 photos and media from museums, galleries, and archives. Alongside extra on the historical past of bicycling, you’ll find a great deal of materials associated to Scotland’s tradition and heritage.
For much more archives, try our different archives blogs, or pay a go to to our on-line exhibitions, protecting every thing from historic retailers to Sir Walter Scott.
Biking Proficiency Exams at Saughtonhall Neighborhood Centre in Edinburgh, 1960. (© The Scotsman Publications Ltd. Licensed by way of Scran)
