14
BUCKDEN’SCYCLINGHISTORY
The recent successes of British cyclists in theOlympics andTour deFrance has led to a new interest in
both competitive and recreational cycling, unmatched perhaps since the 'bicycle madness' of the last
years of the nineteenth century. Sadly, neither this year's Tour de France nor the first-ever Women's
Tour included Buckden on their routes. But it would have been appropriate if they had – for our village
was known to thousands of those lateVictorian enthusiasts who rushed about on their ordinaries, high-
wheels, penny-farthings, rotaries, racers, roadsters, convertibles, sociables (side-by-side tandems!),
safety bicycles, bicyclettes, tricycles, tandems, tandem-tricycles and quadricycles
suitable for three la-
dies, three gentlemen, or a gentleman and two ladies
(one of them presumably an elderly but increas-
ingly fit chaperone). And it was aquadricycle that put Buckden firmly on the international cyclingmap.
How did this come about? For centuries Buckden profited from being a village on a great national high-
way linking London and the North. Highways meant many travellers. They walked, marched, rode or
were carried in litters or coaches or among the clutter of a carrier's cart. Kings or geese, soldiers or pil-
grims, bureaucrats or bishops - Buckden's residents thrived on meeting their needs for food, warmth,
beds, stabling or repairs.
Then in themid 19thC came the railways. Not through Buckden but around it. Faster and usuallymore
reliable and comfortable than the road vehicles struggling through mud and snow or summer dust-
storms, the trains left villages like Buckden in economic decline. Their coaching inns fell quiet, their
populations shrank.
Fortunately for our village, the last 30 years of the century saw the start of themass production of the
bicycle in all its strange variety.
Buckden: A Huntingdonshire Village
describes how this development
improved the lives of people throughout the country – and restored the fortunes of the old coaching vil-
lages. Amajor boost for Buckden came from the fiercely competitive North Road Cycling Club of Lon-
don, for whom the long, straight undulatingGreat NorthRoadwas ideal for time trials and long distance
races. More clubs, small groups and individuals took up the sport. Other riders simply enjoyed the
pleasure of a day out or a leisurely tour.Whoever theywere, Buckdenwas once again in the right place
to benefit: some 60miles above London but below the point at whichmany of the long-distance events
branched off into the network of fen roads. The George & Dragon (now the George) and The Spread
Eagle (now extinct) enthusiastically embraced a new generation of hungry and thirsty travellers. Not
only the inns benefited. A cycle agent took up residence in The Hoo, and a young gardener fromKim-
bolton, Arthur Robinson, converted a High Street school for young ladies into a cycle repair shop (now
the beauty salon Equilibrium - which by a happy coincidence is the state all cyclists need to achieve if
they are not to fall off).
In 1891 the Birmingham Daily Post declared that the George & Dragon lived again in all its old im-
portance, and was a great training quar-
ter for cyclists – something that dated
from 1888, when the inn had hosted a
team of American cyclists out to estab-
lish a newworld speed record. Their lead
rider was Stillman G Whittaker, a high-
wheel champion known the world over
as The Little Yankee, and their chosen
machine was the large and peculiar
'Three inHand'. Built by theRudgeCycle
Company of Coventry it was nearly five
feet high, weighed 120 pounds, had four
30-inch wheels and needed three riders.
Arriving inNovember they spent the next
six weeks in training. They decided to go
for the record on 14December. Although
bad weather delayed their start and left
the surface of theGreat NorthRoad 'half
frozen, half mud and all rutty', they flew
along themeasuredmile in 2minutes 29 seconds. Four days later they knockedanother 10 seconds off
their time. Their amazing speed of over 24mph was claimed to be the fastest men had ever travelled
under their own power. Buckdenhad its place in the record books!
W.T.
