The National Clarion Cycling Club is a British

cycling club A cycling club is a society for cyclists. Clubs tend to be mostly local, and can be general or specialised. In the United Kingdom, for example, the Cyclists' Touring Club, (CTC) is a national cycling association; the Tricycle Association, Tandem ...

founded in 1894, and which retained strong links with the

labour movement The labour movement or labor movement consists of two main wings: the trade union movement (British English) or labor union movement (American English) on the one hand, and the political labour movement on the other. * The trade union movement ...

through the 20th century. At its peak, in 1936, it had 233 UK sections and 8,306 members. In 2021, it replaced its “support for the principles of socialism” with support for “fairness, equality, inclusion and diversity”. Today it has some 30 member sections across Great Britain and over 1,900 members.

History

Clarion Cycling Clubs

The first club was formed in February 1894 in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

, England as the Socialists' Cycling Club. At its second meeting it renamed itself the Clarion Cycling Club after '' The Clarion''

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

newspaper. This was at the peak of the

bicycle boom The bike boom or bicycle craze is any of several specific historic periods marked by increased bicycle enthusiasm, popularity, and sales. Prominent examples include 1819 and 1868, as well as the decades of the 1890s and 1970sthe latter espe ...

, when the old penny farthing had been swept away by the new

safety bicycle A safety bicycle (or simply a safety) is a type of bicycle that became very popular beginning in the late 1880s as an alternative to the penny-farthing ("ordinary") and is now the most common type of bicycle. Early bicycles of this style were kno ...

, the diamond-frame design widely used today. By the end of 1894, readers of ''The Clarion'' formed local socialist

s in five industrial centres: Birmingham,

The Potteries The Staffordshire Potteries is the industrial area encompassing the six towns Burslem, Fenton, Hanley, Longton, Stoke and Tunstall, which is now the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. North Staffordshire became a centre of ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

and

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

. In 1895 at Ashbourne,

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

the five clubs gathered for their first annual Easter Meet. Together they formed the National Clarion Cycling Club, which is

''"the association of the various Clarion Cycling Clubs for the purpose of Socialist propaganda and for promoting inter-club runs between the clubs of different towns"''.

Clarion Scouts

In 1894 a writer in the ''Clarion'' under the pen-name ''"Numquam"'' suggested a "cycling corps of ''Clarion'' Scouts". That summer, a meeting between The Potteries and Birmingham Clarion Clubs decided to put it into effect: "scouts" using their cycling trips to circulate socialist leaflets and copies of the ''Clarion'' wherever they visited. In November 1894, members of the Bradford and Liverpool CCC's campaigned for socialist candidates in local council elections. By the end of that year, 22 of the Bradford CCC's 25 members were working as Scouts, distributing propaganda to villages around the town. In March 1895 a new socialist magazine, ''The Scout'', was launched for Scouts to read and circulate. It was subtitled ''"A Monthly Journal for Socialists"'' and its first edition included a set of "Instructions for Scouts" written by ''The Clarion''s editor

Robert Blatchford Robert Peel Glanville Blatchford (17 March 1851 – 17 December 1943) was an English socialist campaigner, journalist, and author in the United Kingdom. He was also noted as a prominent atheist, nationalist and opponent of eugenics. In the early ...

. The Clarion Clubs also did much to circulate ''The Clarion'', Blatchford's book '' Merrie England'' and the socialist ideas that they expressed. When the Clarion Clubs were formed, socialists in Britain were divided between the

Social Democratic Federation The Social Democratic Federation (SDF) was established as Britain's first organised socialist political party by H. M. Hyndman, and had its first meeting on 7 June 1881. Those joining the SDF included William Morris, George Lansbury, James Con ...

founded in 1881, the

Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...

founded in 1893 and smaller organisations. The Labour Representation Committee that evolved into the current Labour Party was not founded until 1900. Clarion Scouts were encouraged to support either SDF or ILP candidates in elections, and Scouts in districts that lacked local socialist groups were encouraged to form either a local group of either SDF or the ILP, and to build unity between the disparate organisations of Britain's labour movement. The number of local Clarion Clubs/sections grew to 30 by the end of 1895, including London Clarion Cycle Club, and 70 by the early part of 1897. They reached the peak of their extent and influence in 1914, when their Easter Meet was at

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

. The illustrator and socialist

Walter Crane Walter Crane (15 August 184514 March 1915) was an English artist and book illustrator. He is considered to be the most influential, and among the most prolific, children's book creators of his generation and, along with Randolph Caldecott and Ka ...

designed the National Clarion Cycle Club's letterhead. The Clarion membership reached its peak in 1936, with 233 sections across the UK and 8,306 members. At that time they had an educational scheme within the

National Council of Labour Colleges The National Council of Labour Colleges (NCLC) was an organisation set up in the United Kingdom to foster independent working class education. The organisation was founded at a convention held in the Clarion Club House, Yardley, Birmingham on 8/9 ...

. Membership then fell, to 5000 by 1951, 4000 by 1953, 3000 by 1957, 2000 by 1961 and 1000 by 1965. From 2000, the Clarion limped along with only 500-600 members until 2010, when sections were urged to support youth development, and new sections were encouraged. This coincided with a UK 'golden era' of international cycling success; it had 1,300 members in 30 sections in 2014, and by the end of 2017 membership reached 1,895 members.

Modern Clarion movement

Since 2007, the Clarion Cycling Club has doubled its membership to over 2,000 members across some 14 sections. In 2018, the club had active sections in Brighton & Hove, Cotswold, Fenland, Heanor, Gosport, Ironbridge, Lancashire (Barnoldswick, Blackpool, Clitheroe), Greater Manchester (Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Saddleworth, Stockport), London, North Cheshire, Nottinghamshire (Nottingham, Tuxford), Scotland (Coatbridge, West Lothian), Sunderland, Teesside, and Yorkshire (Calder, Yorkshire Coast). A 'private' membership category caters for members who do not live close to a regional section or who do not want to join a local club. Today the Clarion stands less for political activism and more for all forms of cycle activities, including cycle touring, sportives, time trials, road, track and cyclo-cross racing. The staple diet of the Clarion cyclist is the club run, an organised group ride, usually at a weekend, covering distances from 20 miles to over 100 miles in a day. The club has a biannual newsletter, ''Boots and Spurs'', and holds an annual conference. In June 2021, an AGM of the National Clarion Club voted to remove a reference to socialism from its constitution. A majority of members felt it was "divisive and non-inclusive". Two-thirds voted to replace “support for the principles of socialism” with support for “fairness, equality, inclusion and diversity”. Critics accused the club of "trying to erase history" and warned the step may lead to a breakaway organisation.

Splintering

Concerns about dilution of the Clarion's political aims had already created splinter clubs. In 2006 the National Clarion Cycling Club 1895 (North Lancs Union) was formed as a breakaway group from the original National Clarion CC. According to the splinter organisation's secretary Charles Jepson, writing in 2021, it was established "to protect the (original National Clarion CC) founders' commitment to 'combine the pleasures of cycling with the propaganda of socialism'".

Sporting successes and champions

The Clarion has several champions among its membership including: *

Barry Hoban Barry Hoban (born 5 February 1940) is a former English professional cyclist who rode during the late 1960s and early 1970s. He formerly held the record for the most stage wins in the Tour de France by a British rider, winning eight between 1967 ...

started cycling with Calder Clarion in 1955, and later claimed many European victories as well as stages of the

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...

. * Adrian Timmis, formerly of Hednesford (Cannock Chase Clarion), was a prolific national champion and major European stage racer. *

Chris Newton Christopher Malcolm Newton (born 29 September 1973, Middlesbrough, England) is a road and track racing cyclist. Newton is a multiple world champion and triple Olympic medalist. Biography Newton went to Linthorpe Juniors and Boynton Comprehens ...

, formerly of Teesside Clarion, won the 2002 world points race championship on the track and other world, Olympic and Commonwealth medals. *

Adam Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

and Simon Yates, members of Bury Clarion, are current professional cyclists for

Ineos Grenadiers Ineos Grenadiers () (stylised as INEOS Grenadiers) (formerly Team Sky from 2010 to 2019, and Team Ineos from 2019 to 2020) is a British professional cycling team that competes at the UCI WorldTeam level. The team is based at the National Cycli ...

and Team BikeExchange, respectively. Simon is the only British-born rider to win the

Vuelta a España The Vuelta a España (; en, Tour of Spain) is an annual multi-stage bicycle race primarily held in Spain, while also occasionally making passes through nearby countries. Inspired by the success of the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia, the r ...