Hastings & St Leonards Cycling Club History

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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.

This is a start at developing a timeline for the last 150 years. Scroll or Swipe left and right to move between years.

1876
The Club was formed at a meeting in the Swan Hotel on 12 October 1876. The idea of a club had been discussed in the September.
1883
The club adds a Tricycle section
1885
Meeting held on 9 March 1885 at Seaside and Pier Hotel to discuss winding up the club because of a lack of members.
1888
In August 1888 the club had a sign erected at the top of White Hart Hill (Guestling) to warn cyclists about the steepness of the hill.
1920s
George Jenkins competes at UCI World Championships breaks club records at nearly all distances and wins numerous events
1930s
The Helliwell twins and R Harmer and J F Mackie spend the decade breaking each others tandem records
1939-1945
Club continues with limited events during 1939 and 1945, and unsuccesful place to place record attempts in 1940
1946
Club promotes a full programme of events and is founding member of East Sussex Cycing Association
1950s
There is a flurry of record beaking with Gordon King and Esther Rolleston breaking club records at all distances.
1960
At the November AGM it was decided to remove "and Athletic" from the club name.
1962
Jack Southerden publishes his history of the first 80 years of the club.

Maurice Carpenter and Mickey Dunn (Catford CC) break London - Hastings - London Southern RRA Tandem Trike (TT) record
1963
Maurice Carpenter and Mickey Dunn (Catford CC) break London - Brighton - London RRA Tandem Trike (TT) record and Maurice Carpenter and John Mansell (Worthing Excelsior) break Southern RRA 50 mile TT record.
1976
The club celebrates its Centenary. Jack Southerden drafts a supplement to his book to cover the final 20 years of the Centenary
1980s
Another decade of record breaking with the Carpenter family (Maurice, Esther, Stephen and Tim) breaking club individual, tricycle, tandem and team records at every distance
1990s
Chris Kitchenham breaks club records at various distances and across all age categories
2000s
The club continues under the steady management of Chris Parker.

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: 2,895 documents; 628 photographs; and 8,753 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.

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.

This seems to be the 1958 St Leonards to Worthing reliability trial. In Jack's book covering 1957 to 1976 he mentions 17 started on the ride and 14 completed it. This appears to be the 13 on the steps of Worthing Town Hall with the 14th taking the photograph. Tony Langridge, Nick Price, Lyn Chambers, Arthur Coleman, Unknown, Unknown, Colin Sinden, Michael Lingham, Ted Coussens (on steps), Esther Rolleston, Ernie Spray, Jack Southerden, Richard Lingham
Image #34

This could be the finish of the 1958 St Leonards to Worthing reliability trial.Ted Coussens, Bob French, Tony Langridge, Jack Southerden, Colin Sinden, Esther Rolleston, Lyn Chambers, Unknown, Richard Lingham, Michael Lingham, Arthur Coleman, Percy Bliss, Unknown, Malcolm Gardner, Ernie Spray
Image #35

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