Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- No date [1890s]-2010 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
7 boxes and 2 outsize items; 0.129 cubic metres
Context area
Name of creator
Administrative history
Clifton Cycling Club was founded in 1895 at the Old Grey Mare, Clifton Green, York and the first club run was held that year. A Ladies section of the club was founded in 1902 and women were admitted to full club membership in 1923 after which combined club runs were held monthly. The club had a cricket team in its first decades but only had a short existence. The club briefly merged with the Burton Lane Cycling Club during the First World War. The distance of club runs in the early days were determined by the state of the roads, with the club maintaining a ‘road-menders’ fund aimed to help make local roads amenable for cyclists.
The first club event was the '50-mile record', introduced in 1896. In 1906, a ‘100-mile Sealed Handicap’ was also introduced. During the early 20th century Clifton Cycling Club also developed a very strong hill climb team featuring Lazenby Lockwood and the record-setting Kate Green also was also a Clifton Cycling Club member during this period. Around the 1930s the club participated in an annual ‘Cyclists vs Harriers’ race.
The club has published its magazine, ‘The Cliftonite’, since 1936. In the mid-20th century activities such as club runs were documented in newspaper columns such as ‘Cycling Gossip’ and club members' results continued to feature in newspapers later in the 20th century.
The 1960 and 1970s saw racing members of the club such as Pete Smith, John Watson, Roy Cromack, Ian White and Dennis Pickard compete and attain victories at national and international levels of cycling. The club came to participate in a variety of cycling disciplines beyond social rides and time trials, going on to take part in mass start races, cyclocross, mountain biking and track cycling.
Repository
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Includes a series of minute books for the club (not comprehensive) as well as photographs, newspaper cuttings and details of members and events.
Accruals
System of arrangement
A major re-arrangement of the collection was undertaken in 2025 to incorporate uncatalogued material. Former references are noted on catalogue records.
Many of the files contain heterogeneous material and have therefore been placed in series/sub-series that reflect a reasonable amount of their contents. Enhanced descriptions of the contents of such files have been given in ‘Scope & content’ fields and links to related holdings in the catalogue have been given in ‘Related units of description’ fields. In a small number of cases, files have been split if it has not been possible to place a file into a single place in the hierarchy, this is noted on the relevant catalogue records in ‘System of arrangement’ fields.
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Partially restricted access (Data Protection Act). See individual catalogue entries for details of restrictions.
Material is available subject to the usual terms and conditions of access to Archives and Local History collections.
Conditions governing reproduction
Images are supplied for private research only at the Archivist's discretion. Please note that material may be unsuitable for copying on conservation grounds. Researchers who wish to publish material must seek copyright permission from the copyright owner.
Language of material
- English