The Hastings and St.Leonards Cycing Club was formed on 12th October 1876 at the Swan Hotel, Hastings,

Hastings & St Leonards Observer Saturday 14 October 1876

The club is one of the oldest cycling clubs in continious existence (The Pickwick BC was formed in 1870) and probably the 2nd oldest continiuosly active club in the UK after the Peterborough CC.

In 1962 Jack Southerden published his book about the first 80 years of the club, from 1876 to 1956. A digital copy of Jack's book can be found here. We are really pleased that Alan Brooks has kindly loaned us a copy of Jack's supplement that covered the next twenty years, up to the Club's Centenary. A copy can be found here.

This web site is a window into the club's history and will, hopefully, become an enduring record. It will hold all the information I can collect. Although this is about the Hastings & St.Leonards CC, many of the club members are also linked to the Hastings Warrior CC and Spartan CRC clubs in the town.

At the moment we have: 2,622 documents; 566 photographs; and 7,921 individual results. Please email me at hastingsccarchive@gmail.com if you have anything that mentions the club, Hastings Warrior CC or Spartan CRC that I could borrow to add to the archive.

I am continuing sorting through the vast quantities of documents and photographs that Esther Carpenter had collected from various members of the club. For example we have copies of the Club Magazine from the early 1890s in the archive. I am in contact with with some of the (ex)members of the club and I am collecting information that they have kept. It seems to me that this is our last chance to collect the documents that record the history of the club and indeed the story of cycling.

I have hundreds of photographs and thousands of documents that will be scanned into the archive. I am also looking through newspaper archives for more information. I will need help as I know that I am unable to identify everyone in the photographs. You can see a selection of the photographs with unknown people here.

The web site is currently just a database of information. You can use the search options on the right hand side of the page to find information. You can also access pages via the blue links on any pages.

Thanks

I am grateful to the following:

Michael Lingham, Terry Baldwin and Jim Hollands for their photographs and help in identifying people in the photographs;

Bob French for providing hundreds of start sheets, result sheets and photographs as well as identifying people and adding some reminscences;

Peter Baker for also providing hundreds of start & result sheets and photographs of the sponsored club kit;

Alan Brooks , Joyce Sinden and her daughter Pat, and Tony May, (Ian May's son) for a huge quantity of photographs and other items.

Steve Brown in South DC has created an archve of the South DC events going back to the 1930's and I have been able to add another 144 missing results to the archive. He has also kindly provided digital a version of the Porstmouth North End 25 from 26 August 1934.

Paul Wright  for sending me over 40 images from the 1990s/2000s of club riders.

Finally thanks to Esther Carpenter for collecting anything club related over the years and for never throwing anything away which has made this project possible.

Help

Do you recognise any of these people (click on an image for a full size copy of the imge). You can see all the pictures of people I am trying to identify here.

Unknown Hastings Warrior CC Sport's Festival at Central Cricket Ground Hastings on 18 August 1950. Image #293

Unknown Hastings Warrior CC Sport's Festival at Central Cricket Ground Hastings on 18 August 1950. Image #294

If you can help with identifying people in the photographs or have anything related to the club that I can borrow then please email me at hastingsccarchive@gmail.com

Tim

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