Cycling UK Louth Birthday Ride to Woodhall Spa 04-08-2024
Cycling UK Louth Birthday Ride Sunday 3rd August 2024 – Woodhall Spa:
Today a ride to Woodhall Spa and an opportunity to mark our organisation's 146th Birthday. On August 5th 1878, Stanley Cotterell, a young visionary cyclist and like-minded associates, founded the ‘Bicycle Touring Club’, later to become ‘Cyclists’ Touring Club’. This took place in the Spa resort of Harrogate and today we’d celebrate in the Spa resort of Woodhall Spa. A chance too to meet up with Paul Linder who had suggested the Petwood Hotel. We had expected to arrive in Woodhall Spa about 12.30 pm, returning to Louth about 4.30 pm.
Meeting up with today’s Ride Leader Tim Newbery at Louth’s Meridian Leisure Centre were Rob Cook and John Rickett. Apologies had been sent by Steve Croton, Chris Owen and Alan Hockham.
Weatherwise, almost perfect for cycling with a light breeze, bright skies and a top temperature of about 20 Degrees Celsius. Good progress was made climbing up to the Bluestone Heath Road, Tim’s carbon fibre Bianchi making light work of the climb which is more that can be said of the rider. Always fine views from this vantage point and we enjoyed a descent to Goulceby via Red Hill.
A few splashes of rain didn’t dampen our spirits and we were soon heading to Horncastle for our morning refreshments. John opted for a Costa Coffee in town whilst Rob very kindly provided Tim with a flat white and a home-made sausage roll from Just One More Bike.
Departing on the Spa Trail, we were soon to meet up with Mike Leverton who we’d last chatted to at West Ravendale on one of our rides some months ago. Great to catch up on all his news. Now that access to our publicity page on Cycling UK’s website has been restored, ride reports can be posted here once again.
Tim had been concerned that his 23 mm tyres might be an issue on the multi user path to Woodhall Spa but the journey proved straightforward and we arrived at the Petwood Hotel about 12.20 pm. This venue was proving popular with cyclists as the hotel has recently been awarded ‘Cycle Friendly Accreditation’ by Cycle Lincolnshire. Indeed, we were to meet up with a couple of cyclists from Leiden in the Netherlands who were on a cycle holiday travelling from Hull to Harwich. We were informed that Boston was to be today’s destination and we were wondering if they’d been cycling along Sustrans NCN Route 1.
Petwood Hotel is also notable for once having been the Officer’s Mess of “Dambusters” 617 Squadron RAF during WWII. A good enough excuse anyway for Tim to try a pint of ‘Petwood Bomber’.
Great to have met up with Paul and Wendy who’d arrived a little after midday and we were all able to sit together outside on the patio enjoying refreshments, to include various delicious looking sandwiches and cake!
After over an hour chatting away, time to move on for our return journey which would take us through Horsington and Minting. Not wanting to push our luck, no promise was made of wind assistance but a strengthening south to southwest breeze did indeed aid our progress. John was flying off the front, his recent training in Wales clearly in evidence. Passing through the Bain Valley with the tranquil tree lined lane through Fox Covert was a delight.
John waited patiently for the group to arrive at the Black Horse at Donnigton on Bain where final cups of coffee were consumed, before the push back up to the Bluestone Heath Road via Welsdale. From here ’downhill all the way’ and we’d arrive back into Louth at 4.10 pm, ahead of schedule. A little over 80 km (50 miles) covered by the Louth contingent.
Tim’s ‘Relive’ video:
HISTORY of the Cyclist’s Touring Club.
In the 1870s, cycling was becoming increasingly popular in the UK, with around 40 bicycle clubs for racing and social cycling. However, there was no club for cycle tourists. In 1877 Stanley John Ambrose Cotterell, then a young medical student in Edinburgh wrote a letter to the Bicycling Times proposing to form such a club. Samuel Hattersley Ineson, secretary of the Bradford Bicycle Club responded with interest and helped plan a rally the following year where a club could be formed.
One of the main cycling events of that time was the ‘North of England Meet’ which was held on the August Bank Holiday in Harrogate. First instituted in 1877, it had achieved great popularity and clubs from across the country were represented. According to memories published in a souvenir booklet of 1898, subtitled ‘Fun and Frolic in Cycling Camps at Harrogate’, the early meetings were rather lively to say the least! The smoking room of the Commercial Hotel was ‘packed to suffocation’ in the evenings, and after midnight there was a battle between various clubs, and the Yorkshire Yeomanry, which involved a barricade of mattresses and pillows at the head of the stairs. The Union Jack flag hanging on a pole outside one of the rooms was removed and a cyclist was found asleep wrapped in it the morning after, whilst members of the Yeomanry found their boots filled with water. The Landlady was not impressed! Another story recounts that in 1880 a Scottish club brought a barrel of whisky with them to the meet, the consumption of which caused further trouble! Consequently, the hotels of Harrogate were less than happy to entertain the cyclists further, so the North of England Cyclists’ Meet and Camp was formed in 1881, with the attendees lodging in tents, in a field next to Harrogate cricket ground.
To coincide with the second running of the North of England Meet, Stanley Cotterell and Samuel Ineson proposed setting up a Bicycle Touring Club and invited fellow tourists to a meeting at Harrogate on August Bank Holiday 1878 (August 5th). Stanley Cotterell left his home at Birmingham on August 3rd 1878, calling on his way at Bradford to meet up with Samuel Ineson, who was surprised to learn that the probable Secretary of the new Touring Club was a mere youth of ‘eighteen summers’. Stanley Cotterell and Samuel Ineson then cycled from Bradford to Harrogate on August 5th, a Bank Holiday Monday, arriving in good time to join a crowd of cyclists assembled on the ‘Stray’. They rode on their ‘Ordinaries’ on poor quality roads, Samuel Ineson describing the 1878 route as “inches deep in sludge.”
Then at noon, Samuel Ineson headed the procession around the town. After the procession the bicycles were parked in the skating rink adjoining the ‘Spa Concert Rooms’ (since replaced by the ‘Royal Hall’ and more recently the Convention Centre). A 10-mile race was started in the ‘Spa Gardens’, and while it was in progress, Stanley Cotterell, Samuel Ineson and Thomas Hiram Holding (founder of the Camping and Caravanning Club) sat under a chestnut tree and discussed their plans for the first meeting of the Touring Club. They stuck up a sign at the entrance to the Board Room of the Spa Concert Rooms, advertising the meeting to take place at 5 pm. About 50-80 prospective members attended and the subscription fixed at half a crown.
Our organisation was born!