Fordingbridge Museum column

Column by Fordingbridge Museum is sponsored by Adrian Dowding

Soldiers in Bridge Street, Pedal Power

By Julain Hewitt, Fordingbridge Museum

Karl von Drais, a German baron, is credited with inventing the first bicycle in 1817.

It had two iron-shod wheels and was made of wood and the rider pushed it along with their feet. It was known as a Velocipede and became fashionable amongst Regency dandies. Pedals were added later but by then it had become known as the boneshaker because of the rough ride on the poor roads of the day. The poet John Keats derided it as the, “nothing of the day.”

The next development was made by James Stailey in the 1870s and was popularly called the penny-farthing. Most people will be familiar with the very large front wheel and the small back one. It had a hollow metal frame, wire spokes on the wheel and solid rubber tyres.

The 1880s saw the development of bicycle clubs who would organise excursions into the countryside. The large front wheel meant that the penny farthing was fast, but it also could be dangerous. The rider was perched on a saddle that was about four feet above the ground and the pedals were on the front steering wheel. Hitting a stone or a pothole could cause a nasty crash.

In the 1880s Stailey’s nephew developed what became known as the safety bicycle. This had two wheels of the same size and a chain drive and more closely resembled the bikes of today. In the same decade John Dunlop invented the pneumatic tyre and improvements were made in brake design.

Cycle display in the museum

Cycling was not solely a male occupation. Women initially rode tricycles or quadracycles and even Queen Victoria owned a tricycle although there is no evidence she rode it. The safety bike had versions with no cross bar and with chain and spoke guards to accommodate ladies’ long skirts. Soon women cyclists began to wear more practical bloomers. These were full trousers gathered at the ankle, worn with a calf length skirt and a fashionable jacket.

By the 1890s Britain was the leading nation in bicycle manufacturing. Companies like Raleigh, Rudge, and Triumph exported bikes to the British Empire and Europe. Costs came down and this enabled wider ownership. It also enabled the poor, who had previously walked everywhere, to travel further afield for work. I was talking to someone recently whose grandfather had travelled to work every day from their home in Breamore to Bournemouth by bike.

Many early photographs of Fordingbridge and the surrounding area feature bicycles. A photo of the High Street shows a massive pennyfarthing-type wheel used as a shop sign for Coundley and Sons Cycle works which was near the Hundred cut through. Sir Edward Hulse of Breamore House, the sixth baronet, was so proud of his bicycle that he went to a photographer’s studio to have a picture taken of him riding it. We have a picture on the stairs of Fordingbridge Museum of a troop of soldiers wearing wide brimmed hats and mounted on bikes, led by an officer on horseback. They are riding down Bridge Street and I am not certain who they are. There is a record of two Australian soldiers cycling into Fordingbridge from their WW1 camp falling off their bikes and sustaining injuries in Bridge Street in 1918, so it may be the staircase picture is of Australians.

I have recently sold my bike, which for several years had been gathering cobwebs in the garage. Although I no longer cycle, I am pleased the see the resurgence of cycling as a means of getting to work, as a sport and for recreation. It is a non-polluting form of transport that keeps people fit. It also enables one to notice things that one might not see when whizzing by in a car.